Scientists have discovered a water world 100 light years away. Are there any human friends there?

A group of scientists recently discovered a new exoplanet (a planet outside the solar system, the same below), which is said to be a water world with much more water than on Earth. Water is the source of life. If there is life there, humans may be able to find a "soulmate".

The newly discovered exoplanet is numbered as TOI-1452 b. According to the exoplanet numbering rules, this should be a planet orbiting a star called TOI-1452. According to the exoplanet naming rules, the first planet discovered on a star is suffixed with a lowercase letter "b", and the planets discovered later are suffixed with "c, d, e, f, g, h..." in sequence.

So, what kind of planet is this, and what does it mean for our future? Let's learn about this planet.

Discovery and Modeling/

This exoplanet was discovered by a team led by Charles Cadieux of the Institute of Exoplanets at the University of Montreal in Canada. On August 24, the results were published in the form of a paper in the world-renowned "Astronomy Magazine", which introduced the unique properties and characteristics of this planet.

This planet was discovered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, also known as TESS. Its Chinese nickname is "Tess". It was developed and manufactured by NASA (the abbreviation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration), launched into space in 2018, has telescope functions and is dedicated to the exoplanet search project. It is regarded as the successor of the Kepler telescope launched earlier and will also become an assistant to the Webb telescope to be launched later.

During its years of space mission, TESS has observed hundreds of thousands of stars and discovered many new exoplanets, including TOI-1452 b, which is about 100 light-years away and orbits a star named TOI-1452 in a binary star system in the constellation Draco.

TOI-1452's brother is named TIC 420112587. These are two red dwarf stars of similar size, each with a mass of about one-quarter that of the Sun. Red dwarfs are a general term for stars with a mass less than 50% of the Sun. The two red dwarfs are only 14.5 billion kilometers apart, just 2.5 times the distance between the Sun and Pluto.

Red dwarfs have a smaller mass and their thermonuclear reactions are not as intense as those of yellow dwarfs like the sun, so their brightness and temperature are relatively low. The surface temperature of TOI-1452 is only about 2900K, about half the surface temperature of the sun. However, TOI-1452 b is only 9.12 million kilometers away from the star TOI-1452, about 16% of the distance from Mercury to the sun, so the surface temperature of the planet is just in the habitable zone.

The so-called habitable zone is a planet that is neither too far nor too close to its host star, where the surface temperature is suitable for the existence of liquid water. Charles Cardio's team and scientists from the University of Toronto used SPIRou (a new type of spectrometer) to model the spectral analysis of this planet and found that the planet has a large amount of water reserves, accounting for 30% of the entire planet's mass, while the Earth's water reserves only account for 1% of its mass.

What does this mean? It means that there is probably a planet completely covered by water. If there is life there, it will be aquatic life.

So, is there life on TOI-1452 b?

We still don’t know. Not only is it difficult to see exoplanets with current telescopes, but most exostars can only be seen as a point of light, that is, the star’s appearance cannot be seen. Therefore, with the current observation capabilities of human beings, not only can we not see the life there, but we can’t even see the planet itself.

Exoplanets are currently discovered mainly through the transit method, that is, when a planet moves between a star and our line of sight, it will block the star's light, causing the star to dim slightly and affecting the star's brightness. Scientists can use the star's light variation period to analyze whether there is a planet there and what its orbit period is. Then, by observing the gravitational influence between the planet and the star, they can calculate their masses.

The most sophisticated spectrometers available today, such as the infrared spectrometer carried by the Webb telescope, can analyze the atmospheric composition of exoplanets. The metabolism of life will produce some special substances that leave traces in the atmosphere, such as oxygen and methane. Precision spectrometers can analyze the atmospheric spectrum of planets and find evidence of the existence of life from the atmospheric components obtained.

According to the characteristics of life on Earth, water is the first requirement of life. But the presence of water does not necessarily lead to the emergence of life. In the solar system, many planets have water, and some planets have much more water than the Earth. According to scientific investigations and analysis, liquid water may have existed on Venus and Mars in ancient times, but no evidence of the existence of life has been found so far.

Therefore, even if TOI-1452 b is really a water world, it does not necessarily mean that there is life. Moreover, because this planet is very close to the main star, its orbit is small and its orbital speed is very fast, with only 11 days for one revolution (one year). And based on this distance from the main star, this planet is likely to be tidally locked to the star, that is, it will always face the star.

In this way, the side of TOI-1452 b facing the star is always exposed to high temperatures, while the side facing away from the star is always exposed to freezing cold. In such an environment of ice and fire, how difficult it is for life to be born and exist. Moreover, the flares of red dwarfs are very strong, and TOI-1452 b, which is so close to the star, may be constantly bombarded by the energy of flares.

Therefore, it is hard to say whether there is life there. However, now that we have the Webb telescope, since such a new planet has been discovered, I think NASA and the Webb team will not miss this opportunity and will soon let Webb's deep eyes point there for a careful inspection. Perhaps in the near future, there will be good news.

When will humans be able to travel there?

At least for now, we dare not even dream about it, because TOI-1452 b is 100 light years away from us. What does light year mean? It is the distance that light travels in one year, a unit for astronomical distance. The speed of light in a vacuum is 299792.458 kilometers per second, and one year (here the year refers to the Julian year) is 31557600 seconds, so one light year is about 9.46 trillion kilometers.

So far, only 12 human beings have set foot on the moon, which is 384,000 kilometers away on average. The farthest man-made unmanned probe is Voyager 1, which flew 23.5 billion kilometers after 45 years. It is generally believed that the radius of the sun's gravity is about 1 light year. In other words, at the current speed of about 17 kilometers per second, Voyager 1 will need more than 17,000 years to fly out of the sphere of influence of the solar system.

If we want to fly to TOI-1452 b, it will take 1.17 million years. Even if we increase the speed to 100 kilometers per second, it will take 300,000 years to fly to TOI-1452 b. Therefore, even if there is really a vast ocean there, and there are many strange and bizarre creatures in that water world, we can only sigh in despair. No, in fact, we can't even "see" the ocean, we can only "think" about it and sigh in despair.

In the future, if humans want to fly out of the solar system and head into deep space for interstellar migration, they must solve at least two problems: 1. Break through the speed limit of light and use space-time folding or wormhole crossing technology for interstellar voyages; 2. Greatly extend human lifespan, or change the way the body survives and exist as an ideology in order to cope with long interstellar travel.

Will our next generation or the next generation be able to wait until this era arrives? Welcome to discuss and comment.

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