21/07/2026 10:47 - Tecnologia
Published on July 21, 2026.
An international team of astronomers has confirmed, for the first time in history, the existence of an atmosphere surrounding a rocky planet similar to Earth, located in the habitable zone of a distant star. The planet, called LHS 1140 b, is located 49 light-years away and orbits a red dwarf star.
Considered a super-Earth, this exoplanet was first discovered in 2017. It has a radius 1.7 times greater than our planet and a mass almost 5.6 times greater. It completes a full orbit around its star in less than 25 days and, just like our Moon does with Earth, it always shows the same face to its star, meaning it does not have a traditional day and night cycle.
For a planet to harbor life, it must be at an adequate distance from its star, known scientifically as the Goldilocks zone: not too close to boil, not too far to freeze. LHS 1140 b meets this condition and, according to a study published in the journal Science, it also possesses the other two requirements: being rocky and having an atmosphere.
Researchers detected helium escaping from the upper part of its atmosphere using the Magellan Clay telescope, installed at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile (South America), during 2024. Although helium alone could not sustain life, it is believed that in the lower layers there could exist other heavy gases such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygen, or water vapor.
In a new observation campaign carried out in 2025, the team did not detect the helium signal again. This suggests that the planet's atmosphere is suffering a variable leak, a fascinating phenomenon that allows scientists to observe in real-time how the atmosphere of a planet that, in many ways, is similar to Earth changes, as explained by Shreyas Vissapragada, one of the study's authors.
Collin Cherubim, a scientist at Harvard University and lead author of the study, described the finding as a great achievement. "This is the first time anyone has found an atmosphere on a rocky planet in the habitable zone of another star," he pointed out. For her part, MIT astrophysicist Sara Seager emphasized that "when there is one, there are more" in exoplanets, opening the door to future discoveries.
The existence of this atmosphere demonstrates that a rocky planet can retain its gaseous envelope for billions of years, despite the intense ultraviolet radiation from red dwarfs. LHS 1140 b thus becomes a priority target for future research seeking to determine if it has liquid water on its surface.
Alfredo S. Quiroga
