New Earth-Like Planet Discovered: Could It Be Humanity’s Future Home?

Astronomers have made a startling discovery, revealing a new Earth-like planet that may serve as humanity's future home. According to a team of experts, the rocky planet, which is roughly the same mass as Earth, rotates around a white dwarf in the constellation Sagittarius.

In a study published in Nature Astronomy, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, used the Keck Telescope in Hawaii to investigate a system called KMT-2020-BLG-0414, which is a magnificent Earth-like planet orbiting a white dwarf star. Along with the planet is a brown dwarf, which is around 17 times the mass of Jupiter.

This finding supports the theory that as the sun expands into a red giant, its loss of mass will push the planets into more distant orbits. This phenomenon could allow Earth to escape destruction. Jessica Lu, an associate professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley, noted, "Whether life can survive on Earth through that (red giant) period is unknown. But certainly, the most important thing is that Earth isn't swallowed by the Sun when it becomes a red giant."

Keming Zhang, the lead author and a former doctoral student at the UC Berkely, who is now an Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral fellow at UC San Diego said, "We do not currently have a consensus whether Earth could avoid being engulfed by the red giant sun in six billion years."

"In any case, planet Earth will only be a habitable planet for another billion years, at which point Earth's oceans would be vaporized by the runaway greenhouse effect long before the risk of getting swallowed by the red giant," he added.

Furthermore, the discovery has given hope for Earth's survival after our sun reaches its final stage.