Astronomers announced on Wednesday that they’ve discovered a new planet at relatively close 11 light-years away, which is so close to its sun that a year on it lasts ten days. In other words, a new Earth, where time actually works like it feels in the era of Trump tweets.
The Associated Press reports on Ross 128 b, saying it’s “the second-closest planet to be detected yet outside our solar system with surface temperatures potentially similar to ours.” Promising! Tell me more:
Ross 128 b is very near its star, thus the short orbit. But it doesn’t get broiled because the red dwarf star is cool. The star is also quiet, meaning no radiation flare-ups. That’s encouraging news for seekers of extraterrestrial life. The planet is believed to border the so-called habitable zone.
This means that I could travel to Ross 128 b and within one Earth year have aged, chronologically, 36.5 years, making me 68 years old, roughly the age I now feel every day when waking up to read the news. But they’ll probably defund NASA before I can get there, of course.
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Still here. Still without airbrushing. Still with teeth.
