Bullseye.
A multidisciplinary team of planetary scientists just made an incredible discovery.
They discovered what is likely the strongest evidence of an exoplanet with both liquid water and a nitrogen-laced atmosphere (like Earth). And it is orbiting in the habitable zone around its star.
And you guessed it…
That means both the potential for life… and also a habitable planet other than our own. The latest discoveries about the planet, LHS 1140 b, have created quite a bit of excitement in the last few days.
The research revealing the new discoveries about LHS 1140 b was published on June 24. It incorporates new data and analysis from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which was launched in December 2021 and became operational by July 2022.
The discovery of LHS 1140 b, however, isn’t new… But what the JWST revealed about this exoplanet is.
LHS 1140 b had been studied by the Spitzer telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite in the past.
The problem was that the data collected wasn’t enough to distinguish if LHS 1140 b was another gas giant like Neptune… or a rocky, water-rich planet larger than Earth. The differences between the two are critically important.
The planetary scientists could only discern that LHS 1140 b had a significantly larger mass than Earth. It was the JWST’s enhanced capabilities that provided dramatic new insights into LHS 1140 b.
Source: B. Gougeon/Université de Montréal
LHS 1140 b is in the constellation Cetus and is about 1.7 times the size of Earth.
It orbits a red dwarf about 20% the size of our Sun in the star’s habitable zone.
Red dwarfs are smaller, cooler, and dimmer stars compared to our Sun but still produce energy in a similar way – through nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium.
The analysis of the JWST data indicates that the exoplanet orbits its star in the same way that our Moon orbits the Earth. Only one side of the planet always faces the star.
As shown in an artist’s rendering above, the current thinking is that LHS 1140 b may look like a bullseye. Snow and ice cover the majority of the planet (the areas that face away from the red dwarf), and a massive circular ocean 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) in diameter – roughly half the surface area of the Atlantic Ocean – faces the star.
Better yet, the surface temperature of the ocean may be temperate at 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit).
That’s the average temperature of the sea surface on Earth.
LHS 1140 b is an incredibly rare discovery.
The below chart from the research shows just how rare…
Source: Transmission Spectroscopy of the Habitable Zone Exoplanet LHS 1140 b with JWST/NIRISS
We can see the most promising habitable planets within the green band, which is the habitable zone.
Planets in the habitable zone are most likely to have liquid water, temperate climates, and an atmosphere conducive to life.
Outside of Earth, Mars, and LHS 1140 b, there are also a series of exoplanets of interest in the Trappist-1 system, which is quite similar to our own solar system.
The keen eye will also notice the horizontal axis of the image – escape velocity.
Due to LHS 1140 b having a significantly larger mass than the Earth, it would probably take around 70-80% more energy to launch a spacecraft into orbit from the surface of the planet, compared to efforts here on Earth.
That’s not an impediment to landing on or taking off from LHS 1140 b, but just an important factor in propulsion and fuel requirements to do so.
The data from the JWST suggests that the mass of LHS 1140 b is made up of around 10-20% liquid water. This is notable as compared to ice – like what is on our Moon – or water vapor.
In addition to the incredible potential of liquid water, the research indicated…
A spectral retrieval analysis also excludes a clear H2-rich atmosphere, with the most likely atmospheric scenario being that of an N2- or CO2-dominated envelope.
Said another way, LHS 1140 b’s atmosphere may very well be constituted of air similar to our own and may also be conducive to plant life.
And here’s the real kicker… the exoplanet is “only” 48 light years away…
Making it quite close in galactic terms.
Now I know what some of us are thinking…
While 48 light years is close… we can’t travel anywhere near the speed of light, or faster than it, for that matter. So why bother?
After all, we don’t have any warp drives at our disposal to shorten the travel…
That’s true – not yet.
But just five years ago, most computer science “experts” thought that artificial general intelligence (AGI) was decades away. As for me, I had long predicted that we would see AGI by 2028. And based on what I know right now, I’d be surprised if that doesn’t happen by 2026. I was likely too conservative by a year or two.
I’m not suggesting that just because AI is moving at the speed of light, other technologies will as well. What I’m suggesting is that once we have AGI, it can and will be used for autonomous research.
Basically, we’ll be able to throw as much computing power, GPUs, and other AI-specific semiconductors at the AGIs… to accelerate research in any number of fields. It’s the application of AI that will accelerate development in other technologies.
Just imagine what it will mean to give Elon Musk and his team at SpaceX the augmentation of AGI technology.
Do we think that SpaceX will stop after it has commercialized Starship? No way. Musk’s, and therefore SpaceX’s, mission is to build a multi-planetary species.
Some chortle and chuckle when they hear comments like that. But they shouldn’t.
I’d be the first to wager that the next target for SpaceX – after Starship is commercialized and launching regularly – will be advanced propulsion. And I can all but guarantee that Musk and his teams will be using artificial intelligence to aid in the development of materials, propulsion, and rocket design. That alone may get us a lot closer to the speed of light for space travel.
But we should remember that an artificial superintelligence (ASI) won’t be that far behind. It will happen in less than 10 years after developing AGI.
Is it that farfetched to think that an ASI could help us build a warp drive?
We’ve already recently seen artificial intelligence show us the millions of ways proteins fold.
We’ve seen it discover 2.2 million new synthetic crystals that have never been discovered before – the equivalent of 800 years’ worth of knowledge – to aid in the next generation of technology discovery (Outer Limits – DeepMind’s Latest AI Breakthrough).
We’ve seen it identify a disease target known to cause a horrible lung disease known as IPF… and then explore millions of possible compounds that could bind with the target… before isolating one molecule that’s a perfect match.
Molecule 055 has been shown to bind with the disease target and inhibit the fibrosis related to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). It’s now being tested in the lab on mice. (Outer Limits – The Tech That Will Change the Economics of Biotech.)
And we don’t even have AGI yet. Or ASI.
And that’s precisely why LHS 1140 b and the Trappist-1 system (also about 40 light years away) matter.
Just imagine what we’ll be able to do…
The Bleeding Edge is the only free newsletter that delivers daily insights and information from the high-tech world as well as topics and trends relevant to investments.
The Bleeding Edge is the only free newsletter that delivers daily insights and information from the high-tech world as well as topics and trends relevant to investments.
