Planet Profile: Ross 128b
Has anyone heard of Ross 128 b? Well, stay tuned to hear more about it. Ross 128 b is 11 light years away, just out of our solar system. It is about the size of Earth and is habitable. Yep, that’s right--life can grow on it!
Sadly, Ross 128 b is not the closest habitable planet. Proxima b is the closest but is less welcoming. Both orbiting “red dwarf” stars, where they have powerful periodic eruptions, Proxima is much more active, while Ross is much less active. The only problem is we don’t know the composition of the atmosphere; it could be friendly with water (like Earth) or as deadly and sterile as Venus. But unlike Proxima b Ross is not blasting itself with high doses of radiation...as much. It may be 20 times closer to the star it is orbiting, but its temperature is supposedly similar to ours because their “parent star” is much dimmer than ours.