A major discovery has revealed a stunning planet 40 light-years away that sports a striking resemblance to Earth. Dubbed GJ 1214B, which isn’t the most marketable name I’ve seen, is 2.7 times larger than Earth and is loaded with water to the tune of 75% of its mass with a solid core of iron and nickel, an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. Sound familiar? It should, as those specs are very close to to our little home here on Earth, giving credence to the theory that there are probably billions upon billions of Earth-like planets spread across the universe.
But in most other ways, the planet is a “very different beast” from our home world, the researchers say.
“It’s basically one big ocean,” said study leader David Charbonneau of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“There are no continents of rock floating on top or peaking up through the water.”
Moreover, GJ 1214b is hotter than Earth and its atmosphere is ten times thicker than our own, the study authors say.
This would make things difficult for life as we know it. For starters, the atmospheric pressure on the planet’s surface must be immense, and very little light would be able to penetrate the haze to reach the oceans.
