Study: Super-Earth's gravity might be stops aliens from reaching to us

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Study: Super-Earth's gravity might be stops aliens from reaching to us
Study: Super-Earth's gravity might be stops aliens from reaching to us

New Delhi : When we talk about aliens, most of us think about the Sci-Fi films of Hollywood and Bollywood, as well. We often wonder about the existence of aliens in this universe. And, a new study reveals that out of the gravity, there exists a Super Earth which might prevent alien from visiting our Earth. Meaning, the strange creatures on ‘Super-Earth’ planets may be spellbound by gravity and that is unable to make any contact with earth.

Scientists say that Super-Earths are powerful competitor for supporting alien life and if there are aliens on the planets then their super gravity might be stopping the aliens from coming to our Earth. The study has been made by Michael Hippke, an independent researcher associated with the Sonneberg Observatory in Germany.

Hippke found out that since the Super-Earths are larger and heavier than Earth, they have a higher surface gravity which affects space flight. It makes travelling to space tricky. Hippke feels that a strong gravitational pull on Super-Earths might be making it difficult for the aliens to leave the planet and travel to the space.  Aliens will need massive amount of fuel to travel into space and due to the absence of robust technology; the space flight may be exceptionally expensive.

Hippke said, “On more-massive planets, spaceflight would be exponentially more expensive. Such civilizations would not have satellite TV, a moon mission or a Hubble Space Telescope.”  Scientists believe that Super-Earths are about two times wider than Earth and their mass reach up to 10 times that of our Earth. Such a huge mass leads to doubling-up of the surface gravity as compared to Earth. This indicates that the space flight from the surface of the super planets will need substantial quantity of fuel to escape the atmosphere.

The latest research estimated how much fuel would be required to launch a rocket to space from those Super-Earths. Hippke and his fellow scientists found out that a sizable fraction of the Super-Earth planet would have to be used up as fuel for the rocket launch, thus limiting the number of flights travelling to space. Since more fuel is required for space flight, extremely massive rockets need to be made for the same.

Hippke said, “Civilizations from super-Earths are much less likely to explore the star. Instead, they would be to some extent arrested on their home planet and, for example, make more use of lasers or radio telescopes for interstellar communication instead of sending probes or spaceships.”

Scientists says a super-Earth is an extrasolar planet with a mass higher than Earth’s, but substantially below the masses of the Solar System’s ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, which have masses of 15 and 17 times Earth’s, respectively. 

What is Super-Earths

The term super-Earth refers to the mass of the planet which does not imply anything about the surface conditions or habitability. In general, super-Earths are defined by their masses, and the term does not involve temperatures, compositions, orbital properties, habitability or environments. The term “super-Earth”, as per Kepler Mission, refers to planets bigger than Earth-like planets, but smaller than mini-Neptunes.