Some of today’s most captivating thoughts have to do with humans colonizing other planets and finding aliens on them. Elon Musk’s SpaceX program proposes to send humans to Mars within twenty years, while former NASA astronaut Tom Jones says that it will take about twenty-five years for NASA to put humans on the Red Planet.
Today is the right time to focus on space programs. Astronomers have discovered that there is a frozen exoplanet that is more than three times the mass of Earth and orbits the closest star to our sun. Although researchers are not entirely certain about the contents of the star, it is only six light years away. If this neighbor planet holds aliens, a super SpaceX rocket traveling at light speed will need six light years to reach the final destination.
Frozen Exoplanet Is Only Six Light Years Away
Astronomers discovered the frozen exoplanet after connecting the dots from twenty years of data, including more than seven hundred measurements from seven instruments. They were only able to find it in the space by using the radial velocity technique; this technique measures changes in the host star’s velocity. The exoplanet is orbiting Barnard’s star, a red dwarf and the closest single star to the sun.
Researchers believe that the exoplanet, Barnard’s star b, is an icy desert with no liquid water and a temperature colder than Saturn’s. However, there is much about the object that researchers do not know. The researchers are still not sure what Barnard’s star b holds, in terms of its surface composition and atmosphere. Future instruments might be more effective in determining the exoplanet’s atmosphere and composition.
Will We Discover Aliens?
The idea of discovering aliens on other planets is intriguing. Researchers do not know what, or who, is on Barnard’s star b. Even more, Planet X is yet another big story that has shown up in the news. Unlike the red dwarf, Planet X might be in our solar system.
Let us hope that SpaceX will develop a super rocket that will, one day, reach the speed of light. Mankind will surely be surprised by the unique characteristics of any other settlers in this universe.
