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https://www.ecoticias.com/en/a-super-earth-has-been-discovered-just-10-light-years-away-which-could-harbor-an-atmosphere-and-water-but-reaching-it-with-current-technology-would-take-us-about-15000-years/31607/#google_vignette
A super-Earth has been discovered just 10 light-years away, which could
harbor an atmosphere and water, but reaching it with current technology
would take us about 15,000 years
Image Autor
By ECONEWS
Published On: May 3, 2026 at 6:30 PM
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Artist's impression of a rocky super-Earth exoplanet orbiting a red
dwarf star in the GJ 887 system.
Astronomers have confirmed a planet called GJ 887d in the habitable zone
of the nearby red dwarf star GJ 887. It circles every 50.8 days and has
at least six times EarthrCOs mass. That makes it one of the closest known worlds where liquid water might be possible, if it has a stable atmosphere.
So is it close? In space terms, yes, but it is still about 63 trillion
miles away, so this is a telescope story, not a travel story. The
takeaway is that GJ 887d is now a more solid target for future
atmosphere searches.
A calm star with a busy planetary system
GJ 887, also called Gliese 887 and Lacaille 9352, is a cool rCLred dwarfrCY that puts out only a few percent of the SunrCOs light. That low energy
shifts the habitable zone inward. Planets can orbit quickly and still be potentially temperate.
Read More: A potentially habitable super-Earth has been discovered just
10 light years away, and the big question of what might be waiting for
us out there returns with a vengeance
In the new analysis, GJ 887d orbits about 20 million miles from its
star, closer than Mercury is to the Sun, yet receives about 80% of the
energy Earth gets. The same data confirm three other planets on tighter orbits, plus a weaker extra signal that could be another small planet.
The team says that last signal needs more data.
How scientists spotted the wobble
The work comes from an international team led by astronomer C. Hartogh
at the Institute of Astrophysics and Geophysics at the University of G||ttingen, with partners including the University of St Andrews and
ItalyrCOs National Institute for Astrophysics.
Their paper, rCLRedDots: multiplanet system around M dwarf GJ 887 in the
solar neighborhood,rCY reanalyzed existing observations and added new ones
to test whether the 51-day signal was real.
They used the radial velocity method, which detects a planet by
measuring a starrCOs tiny back-and-forth motion.
The signal was measured with the HARPS spectrograph and the ESPRESSO spectrograph, instruments operated in Chile by the European Southern Observatory. Because starspots can imitate planets, the team also used a statistical model called a rCLGaussian processrCY to subtract the starrCOs own noise.
What the habitable zone actually tells us
NASA defines a habitable zone as rCLthe distance from a star at which
liquid water could exist on orbiting planetsrCO surfaces,rCY sometimes
called the rCLGoldilocks zone.rCY That definition is in this official habitable zone guide. It is a useful filter, but it is not a guarantee
of oceans or biology.
For GJ 887d, the studyrCOs basic temperature estimate without atmospheric warming is below freezing by Earth standards.
A thicker atmosphere could warm it, but too much greenhouse warming can
turn a planet into an oven, as Venus shows with temperatures around 867 degrees Fahrenheit. And with about six times EarthrCOs mass, GJ 887d could
be rocky or it could have a deep, gas-rich atmosphere.
Why a quiet red dwarf matters
Red dwarfs can produce intense flares that erode atmospheres, which is
one reason Proxima Centauri b remains controversial. GJ 887 looks
calmer, and a 2020Science report highlighted its unusually low activity
as good news for atmosphere retention rCLA multiplanet system of
super-Earths orbiting the brightest red dwarf star GJ 887rCY.
Read More: Malaysia replaced streetlights with roads that glow in the
dark, but this futuristic idearCowhich promised to revolutionize night drivingrCoended up running into a very down-to-earth problem
That earlier work also reported the same 51-day signal as a candidate
planet.
The new paper builds on that by measuring the starrCOs rotation at about
39 days and using that cycle to separate stellar noise from planet
signals. A calm star today does not prove it was calm when it was young,
so habitability remains uncertain. But cleaner data make follow-up observations more realistic.
Artist's impression of a rocky super-Earth exoplanet orbiting a red
dwarf star in the GJ 887 system.
Astronomers have confirmed that GJ 887d sits in the rCLGoldilocks zonerCY of its star, making it one of the most promising candidates for future
atmosphere and water searches.
Why we cannot travel there anytime soon
Even at about 11 light-years away, GJ 887d is far beyond any near-term mission. At about 430,000 miles per hour, the Parker Solar Probe would
still need roughly 16,000 to 17,000 years to get there, based on its
speed described in a recent Parker Solar Probe status update. That is
why rCLnearbyrCY planets are studied remotely.
Remote sensing means squeezing clues from light, such as heat changes
over an orbit or, someday, direct images of the planet next to its star. Scientists also look for signs of an atmosphere, including clouds and
strong greenhouse gases, even if they cannot yet read a full chemical fingerprint. Slow, yes, but it is progress.
What comes next for GJ 887d
The next big question is straightforward. Does GJ 887d have a
substantial atmosphere, and if it does, is it the kind that could
support liquid water at the surface? Because the planet does not appear
to pass in front of its star, many common atmosphere tests are harder.
Read More: Goodbye to the 24-hour day: from this date onwards, days on
Earth will last 25 hours
Even so, proximity helps. A nearby, bright star gives future
observatories more photons to work with, improving attempts at direct
imaging or thermal measurements. If scientists can constrain temperature swings and reflectivity, they may narrow down whether this is a rocky
world with weather or a thicker, Neptune-like planet.
For now, the discovery is less about claiming a living world and more
about building a shortlist of the best targets. GJ 887d is close enough
to keep showing up in telescope plans, and quiet enough to keep data
cleaner than usual for a red dwarf system. That combination is rare.
The main study has been published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
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