The discovery of a new super-earth planet by an international team of astronomers led by Mikko Tuomi, University of Hertfordshire, and Guillem Anglada-Escude, University of Goettingen has sparked a debate between Hertfordshire students on how relevant it is to them as individuals. Various reasons were put for and against the relevance of this planet to the everyday student, with those arguing for, stating that this discovery firstly gives more of an insight into where we stand as a planet in relation to the rest of the galaxy, they also argued that the topic of life forms existing apart from the human race was still one that had remained unanswered and therefore exploring and analysing this planet could potentially bring more depth into the topic.
Tayo Jayeoba, a student at University of Hertfordshire said “ I believe this discovery is very important because global warming is becoming more of a pending threat and is a topic that affects us all .Therefor the need for alternatives is urgent and it is highly likely that we are going to discover material on other planets which could help us solve this issue “
On the other hand there were those who disagreed, they contended that the sum of money being spent by the government on NASA projects, did not merit the results that it had produced in recent years. In their view the discovery of these planets did not affect them because , that would be only be the beginning as researching and analysing