What is the Real Estate Value of the Neighboring Habitable Planet GJ 3378 b?

What is the Real Estate Value of the Neighboring Habitable Planet GJ 3378 b? Avi Loeb 6 min read · 1 day ago 1 day ago -- 15 Listen Share

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GJ 3378 b is a newly confirmed rocky exoplanet located merely 25 light-years away from Earth. Re-analysis of previous data was used in a new paper published here to characterize GJ 3378 as one of the top candidates in the search for extraterrestrial life.

Press enter or click to view image in full size (Image credit: Greg Wyatt)

The inferred minimum mass of the planet is 2.3 times that of Earth. The host star, GJ 3378, is a cool, faint red dwarf that has about 26% of the Sun’s mass and only 0.85% of the solar luminosity. The planet orbits at a radius of 9.6% of the Earth-Sun separation (AU) with an orbital period of 21.45 days — squarely within the conservative definition of the habitable zone. The planet receives roughly 90% of the radiation flux that Earth receives from the Sun, making its surface temperature similar to that of the Earth.

Whereas the orbital radius lies within the “Goldilocks zone” of habitability, with a surface temperature that allows for liquid water, it is unclear whether GJ 3378 b has an atmospheric pressure that would prevent water ice from sublimating directly into gas phase.

Press enter or click to view image in full size (Image credit: Greg Wyatt)

Red dwarfs like GJ 3378 are known for violent flare activity and strong stellar winds in their youth, which could strip atmospheres from close-in planets, Hence, whether GJ 3378b actually still has an atmosphere today remains an open question.

The planet resides in the “cosmic shoreline” where its surface gravity could retain an atmosphere from being stripped by the intense stellar winds and flares from the host red dwarf. Since the planet does not transit the face of its host star, it is not possible to use the Webb Telescope to test whether it has an atmosphere. Instead, a definitive proof of an atmosphere and potential biosignatures await the launch of a future direct-imaging missions like NASA’s planned Habitable Worlds Observatory.

Press enter or click to view image in full size (Image credit: Greg Wyatt)

Since GJ 3378 b orbits very close to its host red dwarf, the tidal gravitational pull from the star slowed down the planet from rotating rapidly on its axis. This results in one side of the planet facing the star in perpetual daylight, while the other side stays in permanent darkness

The closest habitable Earth-mass planet is Proxima Centauri b. It is 6 times closer to Earth at a distance of 4.2 light years, and has half the minimum mass of merely 1.17 Earth masses. Its orbital radius and period are half the value of GJ 2278b, namely 0.048 AU and 11.2 days, respectively. However, it is irradiated by only 65% of the solar flux on Earth and it is highly prone to atmospheric stripping by the intense flares from its host star.

Whereas Proxima Centauri b is much closer, GJ 3378 b could be better for supporting life if it carries an atmosphere and has liquid water on its surface.

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What is the real estate value of GJ 3378 b?

As a small (M4V-type) red dwarf with only about 26% of the Sun’s mass, GJ 3378 has an expected lifespan of hundreds of billions of years. In comparison, the Sun is forecasted to boil off through the greenhouse effect all liquid water reservoirs on the surface of Earth as it will brighten up within about the next billion years (as discussed here). It would therefore be prudent for humanity to migrate to another home in our cosmic neighborhood within a billion years.

If we ever become an interstellar species, our descendants might choose to migrate to an exoplanet like GJ 3378 b and camp there for hundreds of billions of years into the future. As with the terrestrial real-estate market, the interstellar real -state value of habitable exoplanets like Proxima Centauri b or GJ 3378 b depends only on three factors: location, location and location.

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In this essay, I featured five amazing watercolors from a series created by the celebrated artist, Greg Wyatt. They include insights from Amerigo Vespucci, Galileo Galilei, Alexander von Humbold, Richard Evelyn Bird and Robert Fludd. This is the 24th in a sequence of essays, where Greg and I collaborate on the interface between art and science. The first essay in this series, titled “Music of the Cosmic Spheres,” appeared here; the second essay, titled: “Cosmic Waterfalls in Spacetime Cliffs,” appeared here; the third titled “Missing Elements in the Cosmic Jigsaw Puzzle,” appeared here; the fourth essay, titled: “Why Do We Exist?”, appeared here, and the fifth titled “Inspiration from the Stars”, appeared here, the sixth titled: “We Might Understand How the Cosmos Works Before We Understand How Life Works”, appeared here, the seventh titled: “Will the Human Survive for Billions of Years”, appeared here, the eighth titled: “The Butterfly Effect of Intelligence in the Cosmos”, appeared here, the ninth titled: “Benefits of Extraterrestrial Intelligence over AI”, appeared here, the tenth titled: “Übermenschen on Exoplanets” appeared here, the 11th titled: “If You Had an Infinite Research Budget, How Would You Allocate It?” appeared here, the 12th titled: “Are Human-Made Objects Orbiting Earth?” appeared here, the 13th titled: “Lets Send AI Astronauts, Not Humans, to the Moon”, appeared here, the 14th titled: “Our Highest Priority Should be National Innovation Centers to Complement AI Data Centers” appeared here, the 15th titled “The Cosmic Shells That Seeded Life” appeared here, the 16th titled “Chasing Alien Mysteries in the Sky” appeared here, the 18th titled: “The Smartest Investments in Our Future Are in Space” appeared here, the 19th titled: “The Best and Worst Are Yet to Come”, appeared here, the 20th titled “Would Alien Visitors Possess Intelligence Based on Silicon Chips or Synthetic Biology?” appeared here, the 21st titled “Cosmic Discoveries by National Security Sensors” appeared here, the 22nd titled “On Mysterious Orbs and Fireballs” appeared here, and the 23rd titled “Neutrinos Are Worth a Thousand Words” appeared here.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Press enter or click to view image in full size (Image Credit: Lotem Loeb, May 22, 2026)

Avi Loeb is chair of the UAP Science Advisory Council to the White House, Pentagon, FBI and intelligence agencies, director of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s — Black Hole Initiative, former director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011–2020). He is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021. The paperback edition of his new book, titled “Interstellar”, was published in August 2024.

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