China plans to search for ‘Second Earth’

China is planning a second Earth search with the Earth 2.0 project – Illustration: NASA Ames

After certain successes in the field of space science, such as sending self-propelled robots to the Moon and Mars, China has been moving towards the next challenge with the exploration of more distant planets, tincluding a project called Earth 2.0.

This project aims to find planets with life and conditions like Earth but located outside our Solar System. This is also seen as China’s mission and goal.

According to the magazine Nature, China hopes the project can overcome what NASA’s Kepler telescope has not been able to do. Specifically, Kepler only helped detect more than 5,000 planets, but none of them matched its original goal.

Earth 2.0 includes a satellite capable of carrying 7 telescopes to observe and explore planets, tAmong them are 6 telescopes that together observe about 1.2 million stars in a sky 500 square degrees wide, about 5 times wider than Kepler’s view.

At the same time, these 6 telescopes will also be used to observe the constellation Cygnus – Lyra, where the Kepler telescope used to probe.

In addition, the 7th telescope will be used to survey “fake” planets (which can be understood as free planets and do not revolve around any stars), as well as the center of the Milky Way – where there are large numbers of stars.

Jian Ge, astronomer and Earth 2.0 project member at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: “If the project is successful, the seventh telescope will be a telescope. first gravitational amplifier operating in space”.

About the progress of the project, the magazine Nature China is completing the initial design for the satellite of this project with funding from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

It is expected that the final designs will be finalized and evaluated by a panel of experts in June. If nothing changes, the project will be launched and launch Long March rocket by the end of 2026.

What is life like on the second “Earth”?

TT – Astronomers specializing in the hunt for extrasolar planets have discovered a planet with many features that are very similar to our blue planet.