Astronomers said that they have discovered a planet similar to the Earth on which we live, amid expectations that it is only 31 light-years away from us, that is, at a close distance, and it may also be habitable.
Scientists named the discovered planet “Wolf 1069 b”, saying that its size is close to the size of Earth, and that it revolves around its star, according to a distance that would allow the presence of liquid water, reports Al-Rai daily.
Scientists suggest that this planet, which is outside the solar system, has an atmosphere and a magnetic field, and night and day may also alternate in it.
This discovery comes after a long research path for a number of distinguished scientists and academics at the Max Planx Institute for Astronomy in Germany.
This planet is one of the planets almost similar to Earth, but scientists explain that we still need about 10 years to be able to take a closer and more accurate look at what has been discovered.
An in-depth exploration of this planet outside the solar system requires a very large telescope, which is currently being developed in Chile in order to compensate the European Southern Observatory.
And when this huge telescope is ready, it will be 5 times larger than the telescope that is currently being relied upon.
One of the advantages of the future telescope is that it will have a great ability to explore the minor planets similar to the Earth on which we live, and it will also be able to determine the specifications of its atmosphere.
Last year, the US space agency, NASA, stated that scientists currently know that there are about 5,000 planets outside the solar system.
But planets similar to Earth’s specifications are still very few, as there are only about 6 of them so far, while scientists are betting on discovering more in the future.