Wolf 1061c might be a possible candidate for Another Earth

Scientists have been trying to find if there are planets like the Earth that can sustain life and have a chemical composition similar to that of Earth’s. A lot of missions have been initiated for this. Mars is still under study to test whether it is positive for life sustainability. More than a year back in December 2015 a research team at Australia’s University of New South Wales declared that they had found three rocky planets orbiting the star Wolf 1061. Under further studies it was estimated that one of these planets which is named Wolf 1061c is in the “Goldilocks Zone” which means it is in the position of the orbit where it is a habitable zone. In terms of celestial bodies Wolf 1061 is comparatively close and is said to be 14 light years away from Earth. The hopes of finding a planet like Earth have only risen and scientists are spending more time in studying planets that might have similar conditions like that of Earth’s.

Another scientist, Stephen Kane said that Wolf 1061c looks like a “runway greenhouse”. The same effect took place in Venus. It was seen that Venus did have large water bodies in it like the oceans. But because of its numerous large volcanoes the eruptions send a lot of carbon dioxide into the air. It created a blanket that let the Sun easily heat up all the oceans until there was no water in the planet. The planet now has a temperature of 880 degrees Fahrenheit. Kane says that Wolf 1061c might have similar effects. The Wolf 1061’s radius is a direct measurement using six networked telescopes at the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy in California.

Unlike other previous measurement which were estimates Wolf 1061 has a direct one. Kane and his research team also increased the habitable zone boundaries which is 0.11 to 0.21 AU (Astronomical Unit). 1AU is the distance of Earth from Sun which is 93 million miles.  Before it was estimated from 0.092 to 0.18 by as the habitable zone boundaries by an Australian research group who also found a super-earth in our cosmic neighborhood two years back. Kane said that by the 2020’s direct imaging of the planets would be possible if we were lucky and determining their climate, if any, would become easier.