Nabataeans –
Two experts in space sciences, one American and the other Egyptian, agreed during their interview with “Sky News Arabia” that the discovery of a planet similar to Earth paves the way and brings the distance closer to reaching other planets suitable for human life..
And Thursday, it was announced that the “James Webb” space telescope of the US space agency “NASA” had discovered its first planet, and it turned out that it has rocky terrain and resembles our planet Earth..
The discovered planet is classified as outside the solar system, and it constitutes 99 percent of the Earth’s diameter, and although it has Earth-like terrain, scientists do not yet know whether it has an atmosphere..
And to answer the question of whether there are planets other than Earth suitable for human habitation? Is science and its tools qualified to detect those planets? Sky News Arabia directed to space and astronomers.
“There are approximately a trillion stars in our Milky Way galaxy. About 8% of these stars are similar to the Sun (most of the other stars are much smaller),” said Professor Owen Brian Tone, a professor at the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado. About 20% likely have Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone (the distance from the sun at which a planet is warm enough to have liquid water on the surface).“.
He continued, “So there are over a billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy, and it’s just one of many. There’s probably at least one of these planets within ten light-years of us. We’re about to get the technology to find these.” Planets and start examining them to see if they have water in their atmospheres, and other gases that might indicate some kind of life“.
“Perhaps the next few decades will witness the discovery of such life, or at least evidence that it may exist. We hope that this discovery will bring people closer to each other on Earth because we all share a common ancestor or single roots“.
For his part, the head of the astronomy department at the National Institute for Astronomical and Geophysical Research in Egypt, Ashraf Shaker, said, “Monitoring a planet millions of light-years away is done in various astronomical ways, the simplest of which is the influence of the planet on the star’s light, at times when its light increases when its light is added to the star’s light, Sometimes it obscures some of the star’s light, such as the phenomena of eclipses and lunar eclipses“.
He added in his interview with “Sky News Arabia” that: “After the discovery of the planet, the chemical composition of this planet is analyzed, and we know its temperature, and does it have air, atmosphere, or any environment suitable for the presence of living organisms in it, or water, or is it suitable for human living?
Shaker continued, saying: “This is the most we can know about any planet, even if it is within the solar system and is light minutes away from us. To prove the existence of life, it is not a condition that you find creatures on the planet. Rather, by sending unmanned spacecraft, we can monitor the presence of buildings or Rivers or different manifestations of life“.
And he emphasized that: “We can also analyze meteorites and comets that visit Earth, and see if they contain bacteria, viruses, or water, and this is what happened with Mars when meteorites fell from it near the city of Alexandria at the beginning of the last century, and America discovered after that.” A hundred years ago, that meteorites were in the presence of water like ocean water, and since that date, the world sent many spacecraft to search for water on Mars, and they found traces of it.“.
He explained that: “The last planet that was discovered by the James Webb telescope is located 41 years away at the speed of light, and this means that a person needs the age of 82 years and walks at the speed of light to visit it for seconds, and this is impossible, but if Mars or the moon could live on them just as An event with the International Space Station in the event that the ingredients for life were available“.
He concluded: “The importance of the recently discovered planet lies in knowing how the planets are formed and the changes in their composition, and it gives us an idea of the past and present of the Earth and the solar system, and brings the distance towards discovering other planets that may have the ingredients for life.”“.