This ‘Wolf’ Planet Can Be The Next Habitable World After Earth

An extrasolar planet called Wolf 1061c could be habitable in the future as per astronomer Stephen Kane from San Francisco State University. Kane's research was focused on looking for habitable zones, where liquid water could exist on the surface of a planet.

During the research for Characterization of the Wolf 1061 Planetary System, Kane and his team studied the habitable zone of a planetary system called Wolf 1061 located 14 lightyears away. Incidentally, during the hunt for planets that can host life, astronomers look for a planet with properties similar to the Earth.

"The Wolf 1061 system is important because it is so close and that gives other opportunities to do follow-up studies to see if it does indeed have life," Kane said, according to SF State News. "Simply put, the planet cannot be too close or too far from its parent star. A planet that is too close would be too hot like Earth's twin Venus. If it is too far, it may be too cold and any water would freeze, which is what happens on Mars." Among the three known planets in the Wolf 1061 system, the research team has found a rocky world called Wolf 1061c located entirely within the host star's habitable zone.

The observations that the research team has made about Wolf 1061c include finding out that the planet's orbit changes at a much faster rate than the Earth's, implying chaotic climate conditions. Furthermore, the planet's atmosphere has more similarities with Venus because Wolf 1061c is closer to its star than Earth is to the Sun.

According to Kane, Wolf 1061c can support life under one possibility that the short time scales over which Wolf 1061c's orbit changes could be enough that it could actually cool the exoplanet. At the moment, the research team is conducting further study to have a clearer understanding about what is happening on the surface of the planet.