this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2026
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For the first time, scientists have found a rocky planet with an atmosphere orbiting in a star’s habitable zone. Researchers from Harvard University say the Earth-like world has conditions similar to those on Earth.

The exoplanet, LHS 1140 b, is 48 light-years from Earth. It orbits a red dwarf star at a distance close enough for water to remain liquid, but far enough away that it would not boil.

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[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Being tidally locked could make evolution less dynamic than earth, but it also means there's a Goldilocks zone in there that's always around the right temperature and things could just migrate a little to the east or west to stay within that area. What I find a bit odd is that they would know the approximate gravity of the planet by now, but there's no mention of that in the article. Makes me assume it's bad. Probably too dense for anything but simple life forms.

We need a nice orange dwarf star planet within 15 percent of our own gravity and a good molten core, a moon or two, and a bunch of big ass blocker planets to keep most large asteroids from hitting it and a low enough amount of radioactive crap on it.

[–] Gsus4@mander.xyz 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I'm trying to imagine the weather: Too hot on the sunny side...too cold on the dark side...and in the sunset/terminator region...sounds nice, but...no...superstorm cells and permanent hypercane-strength winds...maybe underground :/

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 days ago

I would think that the air towards the ground level would be cool and not terribly high speed. It would also always be coming from the same direction, so if it was too high, being on one side of a cliff should block it all.