这个地球大小的星球原来是我们的近邻

这个地球大小的星球原来是我们的近邻

It's not every day that astronomers discover a rocky planet hanging out in our own galactic neighborhood. Especially one that's just a little bigger than our own beloved rock.

天文学家并不是每天都能在银河系附近发现一颗岩石行星。尤其是比我们心爱的岩石还要大一点的岩石。

An illustration showing a planet orbiting a small red dwarf star. (Photo: Dotted Yeti/Shutterstock)

Which is why newly named GJ 1252 b is so special.

这就是为什么新命名的GJ 1252 b如此特别。

The planet was spotted by an international team of scientists while they were sifting through data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Their findings were published this month in the academic journal arXiv, but have yet to be peer-reviewed.

这颗行星是由一个国际科学家团队发现的，当时他们正在筛选来自NASA凌日系外行星勘测卫星(TESS)的数据。他们的发现本月发表在学术期刊arXiv上，但是还没有经过同行评审。

"Based on the TESS data and additional follow-up data we are able to reject all false positive scenarios, showing it is a real planet," the researchers note in the paper.

研究人员在论文中写道:“基于TESS数据和其他后续数据，我们能够排除所有的假阳性情况，证明这是一个真实的星球。”

Unlike most newfound planets, GJ 1252 b isn't an ice and gas giant. Rather, it's rocky, just a little bigger than Earth — and practically next door to us. Well, 66.5 light-years next door. On the cosmic scale, that's really just a hop.

与大多数新发现的行星不同，gj1252 b不是一颗冰和气体巨星。相反，它是多岩石的，只是比地球稍大一点——实际上就在我们的隔壁。66.5光年远。在宇宙的尺度上，这真的只是一个跳跃。

But even if we could figure out how to set sail for this planet, we probably wouldn't want to spend any time there. GJ 1252 b isn't the kind of place to raise the kids. In fact, researchers say it isn't a likely candidate for supporting any kind of life. That's because it zips around its sun — a red dwarf star — every 12.4 hours. Although, its star is much smaller than our sun, the rapid orbit suggests the planet's surface is baking hot. What's more, the planet is likely tidally locked, keeping the hot side hot and the cold side, really cold.

但是，即使我们知道如何起航去这个星球，我们可能也不想在那里呆上一段时间。GJ 1252 b不是那种养育孩子的地方。事实上，研究人员说它不太可能支持任何一种生命。这是因为它每12.4小时绕着它的太阳(一颗红矮星)旋转一次。尽管它的恒星比我们的太阳小得多，但它的快速轨道表明，这颗行星的表面正在变得炙热。更重要的是，这颗行星可能是潮汐锁定的，保持热的一面很热，冷的一面，又真的很冷。

But for scientists, that doesn't make GJ 1252 b any less a glittering prize.

但对科学家来说，这并不意味着GJ 1252 b就不那么光彩夺目了。

GJ 1252 b joins a small but rapidly growing cast of rocky planets we're finding in our cosmic environs. The most recent additions — Pi Mensae c and LHS 3844 b — were described in September 2018 and reside 60 and 49 light-years away, respectively.

GJ1252 b是我们在宇宙环境中发现的一个小但增长迅速的岩石行星。最新增加的行星——Pi Mensae c和LHS 3844 b——在2018年9月被发现，分别位于60光年和49光年之外。

Most of the roughly 4,100 planets that have been identified in our galaxy are of the big, gassy and cold variety. That left a small, rocky planet-sized hole in our understanding of the cosmos.

在我们的星系中已经确认的大约4100颗行星中，大多数都是大的、气体的、冷的种类。这给我们对宇宙的认识留下了一个行星大小的岩石小洞。

Could Earth really be such a rare marble?

地球真的是那么稀有的大理石吗?

More likely, we see fewer rocky planets because they're harder to detect than their giant, gassy cousins. Not only are they smaller, but as Science Alert notes, they generally orbit stars that are too small to light them up for further investigation.

更有可能的是，我们看到的岩态行星更少，因为它们比它们巨大的、充满气体的表亲更难被探测到。它们不仅更小，而且正如《科学警报》指出的那样，它们通常围绕着那些太小而不能照亮它们的恒星运行，以便进行进一步的研究。

On the other hand, GJ 1252 b, with its close and frequent orbit, offers scientists frequent chances to monitor it as it passes in front of its sun.

另一方面，GJ 1252 b由于它的轨道很近，也很频繁，所以当它从太阳前面经过时，科学家们经常有机会对它进行监测。

"The host star proximity and brightness and the short orbital period make this star-planet system an attractive target for detailed characterisation," the researchers note.

“主恒星的邻近性、亮度和较短的轨道周期，使这个恒星-行星系统成为一个有吸引力的目标，可以对其进行详细的描述，”研究人员指出。