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  • 6 weeks ago
Transcript
00:04Finding a habitable planet that could harbor life means ticking a lot of boxes.
00:08It first has to be rocky, meaning a world that isn't made of gas.
00:11And it has to have water.
00:12It would also have to orbit a star, but be at just the right distance called the Goldilocks zone.
00:17Or close enough to be warm and have liquid water, but not so close that everything on the planet gets
00:21fried.
00:21And now, just 245 light years away, astronomers may have found a planet that actually satisfies a lot of those
00:27conditions.
00:28They're calling it TOI 733b, and experts say it's just under twice the width of Earth.
00:34It was discovered by researchers after combing through data from NASA's test telescope, finding it spins around its host star
00:40extremely fast.
00:41In fact, one rotation or one year on TOI 733b is only 4.9 days.
00:46Experts say it could have once had an atmosphere like Neptune, made of hydrogen and helium, but now that's changed.
00:52Astronomers say it may have reformed a new atmosphere after that one was stripped away, possibly by its host star.
00:57Changing it to one made of heavier elements.
00:59But they say the data could also mean that it's actually an ocean world.
01:03One covered in vast bodies of water, and possibly even harboring organic life.
01:07Do it anyway.
01:12See you next time.
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