A rocky extraterrestrial "super-Earth" was discovered by European astronomers

European astronomers have discovered the hot exoplanet Gliese 486b, a super-Earth around the nearby star Gliese 486, a red dwarf smaller and colder than the Sun, just 26.3 light-years from our planet. The rocky exoplanet, the third closest ever found, is considered ideal, according to scientists, because of its proximity to the search for atmosphere in it, although due to its high temperature, the existence of friendly conditions for life development is unlikely.

Researchers from the Spanish-German consortium CARMENES, led by planetary scientist Tryphon Trifonov of the German Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, made their observations with various surface and space telescopes and published in the journal Science.

"Gliese 486b cannot be habitable, at least not in the way we know it here on Earth. "It is not hot enough to be a lava world alone, but its temperature makes it suitable for studying a possible atmosphere," Trifonov said.

Gliese 486b, perhaps, has retained some of its original atmosphere and on its dry surface there may be many volcanoes and some lava rivers flowing. The exoplanet is estimated to take only a day and a half to complete its orbit around its star (this is the length of its year), at a distance of 2.5 million kilometers from it.

It is almost 30% larger than the Earth, as its radius is about 1.3 times larger, while its mass is almost three times (2.8 times larger). Its surface temperature is around 430 degrees Celsius, slightly lower than Venus, while a human on its surface would feel a gravity 70% stronger than the earth.

"If the planet were 100 degrees hotter, its entire surface would be lava. "Its atmosphere would consist of gassed rocks," said astrophysicist Jose Caballero of the Spanish Center for Astrobiology.

Over the past two and a half decades, astronomers have discovered more than 4,300 exoplanets, both rocky and non-rocky, few of which have similarities to Earth. The big challenge for "terrestrial" exoplanets is the chemical analysis of a possible atmosphere, which is expected to be possible with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope being launched this year and the future Ultra-Large EL Telescope under construction) in Chile.

Gliese 486b's atmospheric study "could turn it into the" Rosette column "of extraterrestrials, at least for Earth-like planets", noted Caballero, referring to the discovery of an inscription in 1799 that had helped archaeologists translate Egyptian hieroglyphics for the first time.

"Once the James Webb telescope is up and running, we plan to observe the Gliese 486b. "We are optimistic that in about two and a half to three years we can know whether this planet has an atmosphere or not and, if so, what its composition is," Trifonov said.