For the first time, scientists have found a real atmosphere on a rocky planet sitting in the habitable zone of another star.
The planet is called LHS 1140 b. It is about 48 light-years away and a bit bigger than Earth. It orbits a small red dwarf star, in the zone where temperatures could allow liquid water. A Harvard led team confirmed the atmosphere by spotting helium slowly leaking off the planet into space, and published it in the journal Science.
Why this matters: for twenty years, astronomers could find rocky planets in the right spot, but they could never prove any of them held onto air. Without an atmosphere, even a perfectly placed world is just a bare rock.
One thing to be clear about. This is not the discovery of life, and not even proof of water. It only means the planet passed the first basic test for being livable, holding onto a real atmosphere for billions of years. That test had never been passed before.
@OSOREALLYONLINE@EASFCDirect Nah just ask Siri to ask ChatGPT what the time would be in wherever you live relative to the UTC times the maintenance message is displaying.
๐จ๐ด ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐: Manchester United have verbally ๐๐๐๐๐๐ a five-year deal with Kobbie Mainoo, with his new salary expected to be around ยฃ150,000 per week. United are aiming to ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ it before the end of the season.
#MUFC [@samuelluckhurst]
Beat Man City at home.
Beat Arsenal away.
Beat Chelsea away.
On the brink of CL qualification.
3rd in the league.
6 points above Liverpool.
10 points above Chelsea.
Michael Carrick, no matter what happens from here, you have MORE THAN exceeded expectations.
Thank you, Sir. ๐ซกโค๏ธ