Bad Astronomy - : Bad Astronomy. Well now, this is an interesting discovery: astronomers have found what looks like a ! Given that, it might – might – be Earthlike. We’ve found planets like this before, but not very many! And it gets niftier: the planet has at least five siblings, all of which orbit its star closer than it does. Now let me be clear: this is a planet candidate; it has not yet been confirmed. Reading the journal paper (PDF), though, the data look pretty good. It may yet turn out not to be real, but for the purpose of this blog post I’ll just put this caveat here, call it a planet from here on out, and fairly warned be ye, says I. The star is called HD 4. I wouldn’t want to walk there). It’s a K2. 5 dwarf, which means it’s cooler, dimmer, and smaller than the Sun, but not by much. In other words, it’s reasonably Sun- like. By coincidence, it appears ot be about the age as the Sun, too: 4. Free DNS Hosting; Free Mail Forwarding; Free Web Forwarding; WHOIS Contact Privacy. Live Video Stream: Breaking News, KPIX 5 & KBCWtv Newscasts, And Special Events. Forbes Welcome page -- Forbes is a global media company, focusing on business, investing, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, and lifestyle. It was observed using HARPS, the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (I know, it should be HARVPS, but that’s harvd to pronounce). This is an extremely sensitive instrument that looks for changes in the starlight as a planet (or planets) orbits a star. The gravity of the star causes the planet to orbit it, but the planet has gravity too. As it circles the star, the star makes a littler circle too (I like to think of it as two kids, one bigger than the other, clasping hands and swinging each other around; the lighter kid makes a big circle and the bigger kid makes a smaller circle). As the star makes its circle, half the time it’s approaching us and half the time it’s receding. This means its light is Doppler shifted, the same effect that makes a motorcycle engine drop in pitch as it passes you. Massive planets tug on their star harder, so they’re easier to find this way. Gmail is email that's intuitive, efficient, and useful. 15 GB of storage, less spam, and mobile access. Get the latest weird news stories from all over the world. Find bizarre and offbeat news about people, nature and unexplained mysteries at ABC News. Also, a planet closer in has a shorter orbit, so you don’t have to look as long to find it. But in the end, by measuring just how the star is Doppler shifted, you can get the mass and orbital period of the planet. Or planets. In this case, HD 4. HARPS, and three planets were found. But the data are public, so a team of astronomers grabbed it and used a more sensitive method to extract any planetary signatures from the data. They found the three previously- seen planets easily enough, but also found three more! One of them is from a planet that has (at least) seven times the mass of the Earth, and orbits with a 1. Called HD 4. 03. 07g (planets are named after their host star, with a lower case letter after starting with b), it’s in the . It might be dense and only a little bigger than Earth, or it could be big and puffy. But if its density and size are just so, it could easily have about the same surface gravity as Earth – that is, if you stood on it, you’d weight the same as you do now! But the very interesting thing is that it orbits the star at a distance of about 9. Sun! The star is fainter and cooler than the Sun, remember. In fact, at this distance, the planet is right in the star’s ! That’s exciting because of the prospect for life. Now, whenever I mention this I hear from people who get all huffy and say that we don’t know you need water for life. That’s true, but look around. Water is common on Earth, and here we are. We don’t know that you need water for life, but we do know that water is abundant and we need it. We don’t know for sure of any other ways for life to form, so it makes sense to look where we understand things best. And that means liquid water. Here’s a diagram of the system as compared to our own: Note the scales are a bit different, so that the habitable zones of the Sun and of HD 4. HD 4. 03. 07g is actually closer to its star than Earth is to the Sun – an AU is the distance of the Earth to the Sun, so HD 4. AU from its star). What makes me smile is that the new planet is actually better situated in its ! That’s good news, actually: the orbit may be elliptical (the shape can’t be determined from the types of observations made) but still stay entirely in the star’s habitable zone. And take a look at the system: the other planets all orbit closer to the star! We only have two inside Earth’s orbit in our solar system. Amazing. So this planet – if it checks out as being real – is one of only a few we’ve found in the right location for life as we know it. And some of those we’ve found already are gas giants (though they could have big moons where life could arise). So what this shows us is that the Earth isn’t as out of the ordinary as we may have once thought: nature has lots of ways of putting planets the right distances from their stars for life. We’re edging closer all the time to finding that big goal: an Earth- sized, Earth- like planet orbiting a Sun- like star at the right distance for life. This planet is a actually a pretty good fit, but we just don’t know enough about it (primarily its size). And given the numbers of stars we’ve observed, and the number of planets we found, as always I have to ask: has Earth II already been observed, and the data just waiting to be uncovered? Image credits: ESO/M. Kornmesser; Tuomi et al. Related Posts: – ALPHA CENTAURI HAS A PLANET!– Kepler confirms first planet found in the habitable zone of a Sun- like star!– A nearby star may have more planets than we do– Exoplanet in a triple star system, smack dab in the habitable zone– Super- Earth exoplanet likely to be a waterworld. National Geographic Traveler Magazine. Follow Robert Reid, our Digital Nomad, as he checks out the country's most fascinating and curious landmarks. Our Urban Insider is your cosmopolitan culture connection—from great places to stay and things to do in her home base, New York City, to tips from locals in cities around the world. A pioneer of the World Legacy Awards and promotion of sustainable travel, Costas Christ brings us tips and advice to become better, earth- conscious travelers.
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