'Alien planet' with potential to support life discovered in nearby solar system

What would live in a place like this? Artist's impression of an alien planet {Photo Courtesy}

Astronomers have spotted a planet orbiting a nearby star and suggested it could have the right conditions to support life.

The "alien planet" is called Wolf 1061c and sits in the "Goldilocks zone" of a red dwarf star.

This means it is far enough away from the star that liquid water would not be boiled off by the dim sun's heat, but close enough to get the heat, light and warmth which helps to nourish life.

"It is fascinating to look out at the vastness of space and think a star so very close to us - a near neighbour - could host a habitable planet," said Dr Duncan Wright of the University of New South Wales, who is lead author of a report on the "super Earth".

"It is a particularly exciting find because Wolf 1061c sits within the 'Goldilocks' zone where it might be possible for liquid water - and maybe even life - to exist."

The red dwarf Wolf 1061 is cooler and dimmer than our own star and is just 14 light years away, making the new planet the closest habitable world ever discovered.

The second closest super Earth is a rocky planet which is 21 light years away.

Scientists dubbed the new planet HD 219134b and hailed it as a scientific "gold mine" when it was discovered earlier this year.

The alien world is orbiting around a star in the Cassiopeia constellation, which can be seen with the naked eye.

It is interesting because it is "transiting" in front of its own sun - which means it is crossing in front of it.

 

This presents a treasure trove of information for eager space scientists.

"Transiting exoplanets are worth their weight in gold because they can be extensively characterized," said Michael Werner, project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

"This exoplanet will be one of the most studied for decades to come."

Sadly, it is orbiting too close to its star for life to develop.

"Most of the known planets are hundreds of light-years away. This one is practically a next-door neighbor," said astronomer Lars A. Buchhave of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

So will we be visiting this planet any time soon?

Erm, no.

According to NASA, it will take the Voyager probe (which is travelling at 37,000 miles per hour) a whopping 80,000 years to reach Proxima Centauri, our nearest star.

This means it would take a massive 420,000 years to get to our second nearest super earth - more than twice the amount of time humans have existed on the earth.

If you decided to stick to the British speed limit of 30 miles per hour, we estimate you'd arrive at HD 219134b in about 517,860,000 (roughly half a billion) years.

Let's hope scientists can master that warp drive we've all been talking about and get us travelling a bit faster.