Joel Kontinen
“The exoplanet, named K2-288Bb, could either be a rocky world like Earth or a gas-rich planet like Neptune.
The new world lies in a stellar system called K2-288, which includes two dim, cool M-type stars that are roughly 8.2 billion kilometers apart — about six times the distance between Saturn and the our Sun.
The brighter star of the pair is estimated to be half as large and massive as Earth's sun, while its dimmer companion is about one-third the sun's mass and size. This world lies 226 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Taurus K2-288Bb orbits this smaller and dimmer star every 31.3 days.
It resides within its host star's habitable zone, which means the planet may have liquid water on its surface. “
However, liquid water is not the only way way to look for life in the universe. One of the things that we should look for is Phosphorus, that is a chemical element with the symbol P.
Source:
Mathewson, Samantha. 2019. Distant, Possibly Habitable Planet Spotted by Citizen Scientist. Space. com (9 January).
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