Astronomers have announced the discovery of a nearby super Earth that could potentially support alien life — drawing comparisons to theories surrounding Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS, which some researchers suggest may also harbor extraterrestrial material.
The planet, known as GJ 251 c, lies less than 20 light-years away and is classified as a “super Earth” — a rocky world larger than our own but smaller than Neptune. What makes it particularly exciting is its location in the “Goldilocks Zone” — the region around its star where conditions are just right for liquid water to exist.
The discovery, described in The Astronomical Journal, was made possible using data from the Habitable-Zone Planet Finder, a precision instrument developed to locate Earth-like exoplanets in nearby solar systems.
The Cosmic Butterfly: A Window Into Earth’s Origins – USA Herald
A Team Effort Looking for Aliens on 31/Atlas and Super Earth
The international team behind the discovery included researchers from UCLA, Pennsylvania State University, the University of the Netherlands, and the University of Colorado, Boulder, with support from NASA and the National Science Foundation.
