A rocky planet in the Milky Way galaxy may have an atmosphere, raising the possibility that life could exist on its surface, according to experts.
TRAPPIST-1e, a planet belonging to a collection of seven total spheres that orbit around a star, may have a nitrogen-rich atmosphere like Earth’s, according to two separate papers published Monday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The finding indicates that liquid water could exist on the planet located 40,000 light-years away from Earth, offering a paradise for fledgling life, experts said.
TRAPPIST-1e, like Earth, is located in a potential habitable zone, not too close to a star to be scorched, and not too far to create icy conditions, researchers added.
“If there’s one of these planets that could potentially sustain liquid water on the surface, it’s probably that one,” Nikole Lewis, an exoplanet researcher at Cornell University and an author of the two papers, told the New York Times.
The findings outlined in both papers detail initial observations made by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which has been investigating the septet of planets orbiting around the red star TRAPPIST-1.
The presence of an atmosphere has not been confirmed, and scientists have no clue what the surface of TRAPPIST-1e is like, or if liquid exists there.
But, data collected by the telescope suggests the atmosphere is “within the realm of possibility,” Néstor Espinoza, an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and another author of both papers, told the outlet.
To confirm the atmosphere exists, Ryan MacDonald, a co-author of both studies, and his colleagues are planning to study TRAPPIST-1e while embarking on 15 more transits in the coming years, NBC News reported.
Both Earth and one of Saturn’s moons, Titan, have atmospheres dominated by nitrogen gas.
Titan is Saturn’s largest moon and the only known moon in the Earth’s solar system with a substantial atmosphere, housing clouds, rain, rivers, and lakes, according to NASA.
The groundbreaking discovery on TRAPPIST-1e comes as experts have uncovered clues to possible life on Mars.
A study published in the journal “Nature” on Wednesday announced NASA’s Perseverance rover has discovered some polka-dotted rocks that may provide the strongest evidence yet of Martian life.
The rover discovered the “building rocks” while roaming the inside of Neretva Vallis, an ancient river valley on the Red Planet. Billions of years ago, this intergalactic aqueduct supplied water to the Jezero Crater, an alleged former lake bed that supposedly held the precursors to life.