Pardon My Lack of Enthusiasm over Exoplanet ToI 700d

Let the trumpeters trumpet and the drummers drum, get a sheet cake and invite your friends, exoplanet ToI 700d may be earth-like. We have heard that kind of thing before, then the additional information drops in. If I recollect rightly, there was news about Earth's twin, but only if Earth was a ball of magma. Still, the newly-discovered planet is in the "habitable zone", so it's got that going for it.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

TESS found it. No, not the woman that works in the mail room. It's NASA's own Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, and ToI is used to denote Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite Object of Interest. An astronomer may want to switch me with snakes for this, but I'm skeptical because observations are limited and conclusions are inferred. Indeed, some think that the outer reaches of our own solar system may be home to a small black hole, others think a massive planet is out there. There are plenty of unknowns closer to home, so I am a mite skeptical about the pronouncements of secularists. They have an agenda to find excuses to promote evolution and deny the Creator, you know.

The habitable zone is not a fixed number, but varies because of the stars involved. Red dwarfs (like the one above) have mixed reactions from naturalists. Some say they are the excellent candidates for extraterrestrial life, others know that flares and such are hostile to life. There are other kinds of dwarf stars (including orange dwarfs, all seven of them live in a hut with an odd woman), red giants, and others with differing habitable zones.

Even if a planet is considered to be in a zone conducive to life, there are many other factors to consider such as the planet's size, density, composition, rotation (or the lack thereof), and more. This Object of Interest may not prove to be so interesting after all, especially based on previous exoplanets.

Here we go again. A recent news story reported the discovery of the latest earth-like planet orbiting another star. This time, it’s TOI 700d, discovered by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Launched in 2018, TESS searches for transits of exoplanets as they pass in front of their stars each orbit. . . .

What makes TOI 700d special? Measurements suggest that TOI 700d is 1.19 ± 0.11 times the earth’s size. Therefore, in terms of size, this exoplanet is earth-like. The mass of TOI 700d is less certain than its size. Its mass is inferred to be 1.72 (+1.29, -0.63) of that of the earth’s. If one takes the stated size and mass without the error range, then the density (and hence composition) of TOI 700d is close to that of the earth, again qualifying it as earth-like. However, considering the range of possible values of size and mass given their errors, the density, and composition of TOI 700b could be almost anything.

To finish reading, click on "TOI 700d: The Latest Earth-Like Exoplanet?"




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