Just 4.2 light-years away from Earth, an exoplanet that is orbiting a star in the habitable zone may have a large ocean that increases the possibilities that it may harbor life.

Proxima b, whose mass is just about 1.3 times that of Earth and whose red dwarf star it orbits is around the same age as our sun, has raised many questions regarding the circumstances on its surface ever since it was discovered.

However, studies over the past few years have both raised and dashed expectations regarding its habitability. Proxima b may now be capable of supporting life once more thanks to a recent study that claims that, in the correct circumstances, the exoplanet may support liquid water. According to N.A.S.A Goddard Institute for Space Studies planetary scientist Anthony Del Genio, “the main message from our models is that there’s a fair likelihood that the planet would be livable.”

Proxima b, whose mass is just about 1.3 times that of Earth and whose red dwarf star it orbits is around the same age as our sun, has raised many questions regarding the circumstances on its surface ever since it was discovered. Imagination of an artist

The study, which was just released in the journal Astrobiology, purports to be the first to simulate Proxima b’s climate with a dynamic ocean. It is believed that the planet is tidally locked to its star, Proxima Centauri, creating a perpetual “dayside” and “nightside.”

While any water on the side left in the dark would be frozen, that’s not necessarily the case for the other side.“Climate models with static oceans suggest that Proxima b could harbor a small dayside surface ocean despite its weak instellation,” the researchers explain in the new study. “With a dynamic (moving) ocean considered for the first time, the extent of this liquid water becomes much more significant, in some cases even dipping into parts of the nightside.

The simulations showed that ‘with a dynamic ocean, a hypothetical ocean-covered Proxima Centauri b with an atmosphere similar to modern Earth’s can have a habitable climate with a broad region of open ocean, extending to the nightside at low latitudes.”

The researchers modelled for different salinity levels and atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations as well, each of which could play into the size of the liquid regions. In more than a dozen simulations, the team found the exoplanet almost always had some sort of liquid ocean. But, don’t get excited to take a dip just yet.

“We find that an ocean-covered Proxima b could have a much broader area of surface liquid water but at much colder temperatures than previously suggested, due to ocean heat transport and/or depression of the freezing point by salinity,” the researchers wrote.

Soucre: news.sci-nature.com