Beijing Reveals Massive Project to Find ‘Earth 2.0’…

An illustration of exoplanet Kepler-1649c. Image: NASA/Ames Research Center/Daniel RutterABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, future tech, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs.China intends to find the first “Earth 2.0,” meaning a planet similar to Earth orbiting a Sun-like star, with a next-generation space observatory currently slated for launch by the end of 2026.Spearheaded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the so-called “Earth 2.0” (ET) mission would be the first telescope designed to measure the occurrence rate of these Earth-like worlds in our galaxy, the Milky Way, as well as the range of orbits they occupy around their host stars. While the existence of the plan was previously reported by Nature and other publications, the mission team has now published a 115-page white paper outlining the project in detail on the preprint server arXiv. The ET mission will search for “elusive Earth twins orbiting solar-type stars” and will “detect thousands of terrestrial exoplanets over a wide range of orbital periods and in interstellar space,” according to the paper. AdvertisementThis central focus on Earth 2.0s is part of a larger international effort to find worlds that might be potentially habitable. Once identified, these worlds could be scanned for signs of life, called biosignatures, by other telescopes, which could yield insights into one of the most persistent questions in human history: Are we alone in the universe? “Habitable Earth-like planets around solar-type stars, i.e., Earth 2.0s, are likely the most favorable places to search for extraterrestrial life due to their potentially having physical, chemical, and potentially biological environments similar to Earth,” ” said the mission team—which is led by Jian Ge, a professor at the the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the CAS—in the white paper. “Therefore, it is necessary to identify Earth 2.0s first before extraterrestrial life can be possibly detected. Most current space missions for exoplanets do not cover this key area”Beyond Earth-like worlds, the project will shed light on a host of questions about many other kinds of exoplanets, which are worlds outside of our solar system, including free-floating planets—also known …