Gliese 486 b is the most studied terrestrial planet outside the solar system.

Em 2021, the world became known to the super-earth and some data remains open that it could be a very interesting exoplanet. The planet, named Gliese 486 b, orbits the red dwarf Gliese 486, 26 light-years from Earth. An international scientific team led by the Center for Astrobiology (CSIC-INTA) has measured the mass and radius of an Earth-like exoplanet with unprecedented precision.

The interest and work developed in this new world, found “close to us”, made it possible to predict what the structure and composition of its interior, as well as its atmosphere, might be. The data is very interesting.

Is this exoplanet a place where humans could live?

The planet was greeted with great impatience. Thus, the researchers used data from several ground-based and space-based telescopes such as CHARA, CHEOPS, Hubble, MAROON-X, TESS and CARMENES to model the interior of the Gliese 486 b exoplanet.

Thus, a group of astronomers led by José A. Caballero managed to estimate the relative sizes of its metallic core and rocky mantle. Details published in the magazine Astronomy and astrophysics.

The team also made predictions about the composition of the planet's atmosphere, discovered in 2021, as well as its detectability by the James Webb Space Telescope, which will soon point its mirror at the planetary system to which it belongs.

Gliese 486 b has become the Rosetta Stone of exoplanetology. In the solar system we have the terrestrial planets Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, and it is now the fifth most studied terrestrial planet in the universe.

Disse José A. Caballero (CAB).

Although it is one of the closest known transit planets, constantly moving at 10% the speed of light, the probe will take 260 years to reach it.

Gliese 486 will be the exoplanet science of the future

In the presentation of this work, the researcher already pointed to additional studies, such as the formation of planetary magnetic fields in the outer core with liquid metals, since Gliese 486 b seems to have the same field as our Earth. These magnetic fields can act as a shield against stellar storms and prevent atmospheric erosion.

Several questions remain unanswered, according to the team: could such an atmosphere be primitive and composed of hydrogen and helium, or composed of carbon dioxide and water vapor from volcanic eruptions, and could Gliese 486 b have tectonic activity?

Although this exoplanet seems too hot for life, its precise characterization could make it the first exoplanet - and so far the only one - where these pertinent questions can be asked. Just a few years ago, trying to find answers was considered science fiction.

First exoplanet around a star similar to our sun 51 pegasus bwas opened in 1995. Since then, every year the astronomical community has found exoplanets that are becoming less massive, closer and more Earth-like.

Although most of them are uninhabitable, transit planets such as Gliese 486 b are of greatest interest to the astronomical community because they allow exploration of their atmospheres and, only for planetary systems closest to the Sun, their interiors.

Project CARMEN ISwhose consortium consists of eleven research institutes from Spain and Germany, discovered three of the eight nearest systems thanks to such transit planets, the last of which was announced last week.