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In the habitable zone 74% of its orbit? Although it sounds great, I'm left skeptical: to support life, wouldn't that need to be 100%?

• cryptoz 15y ago
  It doesn't need to be 100% if the atmosphere of the planet could keep enough heat for the remaining 26% of the time, which is entirely likely. This find is awesome, but it's not what the headline describes. The planet is no "ExoEarth". It's a fantasticly cool exoplanet that could very probably support life that vaguely resembles life on Earth (not humans, though).
  • danking00 15y ago
    It looks like the planet actually slides closer in to the star, thus the issue would be keeping the environment cool enough.
    • Roboprog 15y ago
      Closer to a smaller, cooler star.
      • danking00 15y ago
        Yes, but the habital zone scales with star size, so a radial position less than the habital zone would indeed be warmer than desirable for Earth-like life.