At around 14 light-years from our planet, will the exoplanet
– as in a planet outside of our Solar System - that can harbor life similar to
one found here on Earth?
By: Ringo Bones
Star Trek fans may be wondering if the planet is related to
Wolf 359 – that Federation colonized planet that was invaded by the Borg – but when
the discovery was announced back in December 17, 2015 following a study based
on 10 years of archival spectrum taken of the star Wolf 1061 using the HARPS
Spectrograph attached to the ESO 3.6 meter telescope at the European Southern
Observatory at La Silla, Chile. The discovery was made by a team of astronomers
from the University of New South Wales of Australia.
Wolf 1061c or WL1061c is an exoplanet – that is a planet
that lies outside of our Solar System – orbiting the red dwarf star Wolf 1061
in the Ophiuchus constellation about 13.8 light years from Earth. Wolf 1061c is
the second planet in order from its parent star in a triple planetary system
and has an orbital period of 17.9 days. Wolf 1061c is classified as a
super-Earth type exoplanet as its mass is 4.3 times that of Earth and an
estimated surface gravity of 1.6 times that found on the surface of the Earth. In
astronomical terms, the Wolf 1061 system is relatively close to planet Earth’s
Solar System at 13.8 light years away. This makes it the closest known potentially
habitable planet to Earth, yielding interests from astronomers the world over.
Wolf 1061c’s orbital distance of 0.084 AU (astronomical
units) – assuming mild eccentricity – lies at the inner edge of its parent star’s
habitable zone, which extends from approximately 0.073 to 0.190 AU. For
comparison, the habitable zone of our Sun is approximately at 0.5 to 3.0 AU if
you account for our Sun’s greater energy emission. Because it is so close to
its parent star, planet Wolf 1061c is likely to be tidally locked – meaning one
side of the planet permanently faces its parent star and the other side
permanently faces away. Although this scenario could result in extreme
temperature differences on the planet, the terminator line that separates the
illuminated side and the dark side could potentially be habitable for life-forms
similar to that that exists here on Earth, as the temperature there could be
suitable for liquid water to exist. Additionally, a much larger portion of the
planet could also be habitable if Wolf 1061c has a thick enough atmosphere to
facilitate heat transfer away from the side permanently facing its parent star.
