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Is there life beyond Earth? Scientists look for answers with new discovery of 'Exoplanet'

Scientists will try to determine whether there is an atmosphere on the 'Super-Earth' and traces of life around a star other than our Sun.

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An artistic impression of the surface of the newly discovered hot Super-Earth Gliese 486b, with a temperature of about 700 Kelvin Photograph (Image Source: Twitter)
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Is there life beyond Earth? This is a question that has been asked for years and scientists to have been working towards finding an answer to this question. But now scientists are moving towards finding a definite answer to this question.

A study published on Thursday in the prestigious journal Science reveals the discovery of a new exoplanet that could be instrumental in the hunt.

A planet discovered near our own solar system could help in the search for life elsewhere in the universe, scientists said.

The 'Super-Earth' exoplanet has a surface temperature slightly cooler than Venus. Scientists will try to determine whether there is an atmosphere on the 'Super-Earth' and traces of life around a star other than our Sun.

"The end of the road is finding biomarkers or biosignatures in the atmospheres of exoplanets, which is signs of life on habitable Earth-like planets," said Jose Caballero, an astronomer at Spain's Centro de Astrobiologia and one of the co-authors of the study.

To identify it, researchers used two methods - 'transit photometry' which means slight variations in a star's brightness as a planet passes in front of it, and 'Doppler radial Velocity' which measures the wobbling of stars from the gravitational pull of orbiting planets.

Key Features

About 4,000 exoplanets have been discovered during the past 25 years and some have been found to have an atmosphere.

These are 'gaseous planets or icy planets'.

Planets the size of Earth are yet to be investigated.

Researchers can now study an exoplanet that is 'rocky in nature, like the Earth'.

The name of the exoplanet is Gliese 486b and it is only 26 light-years away. 

It is about 30% larger than Earth but with a mass 2.8 times that of our planet.

It is located in what is called a habitable zone around a star.

What Researchers have to say?

Researchers from Germany's Max Planck Institute for Astronomy said the planet Gliese 486 b is not ideal for living as it is hot and dry, with possible rivers of lava flowing across its surface.

But its proximity to Earth and its physical traits make it ideally suited for a study of its atmosphere by the next generation of space-borne and ground-based telescopes.

NASA is due to launch the James Webb Space Telescope later this year.

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