00:00Hey, scientists may have just found a new planet that looks a lot like Earth, with a big icy catch.
00:07This world is about 150 light-years away, rocky, and circles a sun-like star on a schedule pretty close
00:14to ours.
00:14At first sight, it sounds promising, right?
00:17Well, slow down, there's a catch here.
00:20It might be insanely cold, as cold as Mars in the deep freeze.
00:24You see, HD 137-010b doesn't seem to be a gas ball, so we would probably be able to stand
00:33on its surface.
00:34It's a little bigger than Earth and goes around a star that's pretty similar to our Sun.
00:39This star is about 146 light-years away from our planet, which, in space terms, is close enough for scientists
00:45to study it instead of just, you know, squinting at it.
00:48But what made people excited is the fact that this planet takes about one Earth-year to go around its
00:55star.
00:55Now, that's a big deal, because most exoplanets dash around their stars in days or weeks.
01:01Even better, this newly discovered one might sit right on the outer edge of the habitable zone, also called the
01:08Goldilocks zone.
01:09This region is not too hot and not too cold, which means that liquid water might exist on the planet
01:16if it has the right atmosphere.
01:18A big if, but still cool.
01:21Another thing that makes this planet extra special is how we see it.
01:25From Earth, it actually passes in front of its star.
01:28Imagine a tiny bug crawling across a flashlight beam.
01:32You got it.
01:33That makes it way easier for scientists to study things like its size, orbit, and maybe even what its atmosphere
01:40is made of.
01:40And if all of this checks out, it could be one of the best Earth-like planet candidates we've ever
01:46found.
01:46And now, the bad news.
01:49This planet does not get much sunlight.
01:52HD 137010 b gets less than one-third of the heat and light Earth gets from the Sun.
01:58Even though its star is similar to our Sun, it's basically the Sun's quieter, dimmer cousin.
02:04You know, same type, lower wattage.
02:06What does that mean for the planet?
02:08It could be insanely cold.
02:10Scientists think the surface temperature might max out at around minus 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
02:16And that's not a grab-a-jacket cold, that's your face-freezes-right-away cold.
02:21For comparison, Mars has an average temperature of around minus 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
02:27So this planet could actually be colder than Mars.
02:30A frozen desert.
02:32Not to be confused with a frozen dessert that looks like it gave up on life a long time ago.
02:38Another plot twist.
02:39This planet isn't officially a planet yet.
02:42At the moment, it's still labeled a candidate.
02:45Scientists usually confirm planets by watching them pass in front of their star over and over again.
02:51Every time that happens, the star dims just a little bit.
02:54But with this new space body, we've only seen one transit.
02:58A single, 10-hour-long mini-eclipse, spotted during Kepler's second mission, called K2.
03:05Even with that one pass, astronomers could still learn a lot.
03:09They measured how long the planet's shadow took to cross the star.
03:13About 10 hours.
03:14For comparison, Earth takes about 13 hours to cross the Sun.
03:18Then, they plugged that into orbital models,
03:21and estimated that the planet probably takes about a year to go around its star.
03:26That's impressive, but it's still not enough.
03:30Astronomers need to see that dip in starlight repeat on schedule
03:33to be sure it's really a planet and not some weird stellar wanderer.
03:38Unfortunately, this planet orbits far out, and those transits are rare.
03:42You don't get one every few days or weeks.
03:45You might have to wait a year or more for the next one.
03:48That's one of the big reasons Earth-like planets are so hard to find in the first place.
03:52So now, scientists are just hoping that other space telescopes can help out.
03:58NASA's TESS might catch another transit,
04:00or Europe's KEOPS telescope could help pin it down.
04:04If neither of those catches it,
04:06we might have to wait for the next generation of space telescopes to get better data.
04:10Because even though this planet sounds like an ice cube in space,
04:14it's not totally doomed.
04:16If it has a thick atmosphere, especially if it's rich in carbon dioxide,
04:20it could trap heat really well, like a planet-sized winter coat.
04:25In that case, the planet might actually have a mild climate,
04:28or even liquid water on its surface.
04:31Well, based on computer models,
04:33scientists say there's about a 40% chance this distant world sits in the safe, conservative, habitable zone.
04:39A chance that it's located in a more relaxed, optimistic, habitable zone reaches 51%.
04:46But there's also a 50-50 chance that the planet is actually outside the habitable zone altogether.
04:52In other words, this planet is basically a cosmic coin toss.
04:57It could be a frozen wasteland worse than Mars,
05:00a chilly, barely survivable world,
05:02or a watery planet hiding under a thick atmosphere.
05:05HD 137010b isn't the only place that has the potential to host human civilization in the future.
05:13In recent years, astronomers have been spotting new super-Earth planets orbiting remote stars.
05:19Now, checking our space vocabulary,
05:21super-Earth means a planet beyond the solar system with a mass higher than that of Earth,
05:26but below those of the ice giants of the solar system, Uranus and Neptune.
05:31One of those planets is Gliese 667cc.
05:35It's just 22 light-years from Earth.
05:37But even though it seems pretty close,
05:39it's still around 129 trillion miles away from us.
05:43That's around 1.4 million times the average distance from the Earth to the Sun.
05:49So, very, very far.
05:51The planet itself is around 3.8 times as massive as Earth,
05:55and completes one orbit around its host star within 28 days.
05:59In other words, a year on that Earth-like planet is 13 times shorter than a year on our planet.
06:06Luckily, the star is a cool red dwarf, so the exoplanet most likely lies in its habitable zone.
06:12But there's still a chance that this world might be regularly baked by the flares from its parent star.
06:20Then, there's Kepler-22b.
06:23This world is way farther away than the previous world, more like 600 light-years away from our planet.
06:29It's larger than Earth, and is about 2.5 times our planet's size.
06:33Sadly, we still don't know whether this planet is rocky, liquid, or gaseous.
06:38The orbit of Kepler-22b is pretty similar to Earth's.
06:42It takes the planet 290 days to orbit its G-class star, which is kinda similar to our Sun.
06:48But this star is smaller and colder than ours.
06:52Now, don't confuse this world with Kepler-69c.
06:56It lies a whopping 2,700 light-years away from us, and is almost 70% larger than Earth.
07:03Researchers know nothing about its composition.
07:05But they found out that the planet needs 242 days to complete one orbit.
07:10This makes its position in its system similar to that of Venus in our solar system.
07:15At the same time, this world might be more hospitable than Venus,
07:19since its host star is a bit less luminous – 80% of our Sun.
07:24As for our Venus, it's an extremely hostile place.
07:27You don't want to go there.
07:29A runaway greenhouse effect caused by an atmosphere that's about 96% carbon dioxide traps the heat.
07:36That pushes surface temperatures up to around 878 degrees Fahrenheit, which is hot enough to melt lead.
07:43On top of that, the air pressure is about 90 times stronger than that of Earth.
07:48And the whole planet is covered in thick clouds of corrosive sulfuric acid.
07:52Oh boy.
07:53Compared to our neighbor, TOI-733b seems like a pretty friendly world.
07:59This planet was found in 2023.
08:02It's floating 245 light-years away from Earth.
08:06The coolest thing about this planet is that it might have a massive ocean.
08:10According to scientists, this planet is likely to be completely covered with water.
08:15Does it mean there could be life on this super-Earth?
08:18Well, time will show.
08:20And who knows?
08:21Maybe soon, we'll find even more planets that could become a new home for people looking to explore the universe.
08:28As for HD 137010b, the fact that it checks so many Earth-style boxes makes it a really interesting find.
08:37It's not a backup Earth yet, but it makes scientists stop and say,
08:40OK, this one's worth a closer look.
08:43Or something similar.
08:45That's it for today.
08:46So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
08:51Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.
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