Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




EXO WORLDS
Nearby six-planet system could be life friendly
by Staff Writers
Hertfordshire UK (SPX) Nov 12, 2012


illustration only

A new super-Earth planet that may have an Earth-like climate and be just right to support life has been discovered around a nearby star by an international team of astronomers, led by Mikko Tuomi, University of Hertfordshire, and Guillem Anglada-Escude, University of Goettingen.

The new super-Earth planet exists in the habitable zone of a nearby star and is part of a six-planet system. The system was previously thought to contain three planets in orbits too close to the star to support liquid water. By avoiding fake signals caused by stellar activity, the researchers have identified three new super-Earth planet candidates also in orbit.

Mikko Tuomi said: "We pioneered new data analysis techniques including the use of the wavelength as a filter to reduce the influence of activity on the signal from this star. This significantly increased our sensitivity and enabled us to reveal three new super-Earth planets around the star known as HD 40307, making it into a six-planet system."

Of the new planets, the one of greatest interest is the one with the outermost orbit from the star, it has a mass at least seven times the mass of the Earth. Its orbit around the host star is at a similar distance to Earth's orbit around our Sun, so it receives a similar amount of energy from the star as the Earth receives from the Sun - increasing the probability of it being habitable.

This is where the presence of liquid water and stable atmospheres to support life is possible and, more importantly, it is likely to be rotating on its own axis as it orbits around the star creating a daytime and night-time on the planet which would be better at creating an Earth-like environment.

Guillem Angla-Escude said: "The star HD 40307, is a perfectly quiet old dwarf star, so there is no reason why such a planet could not sustain an Earth-like climate."

Hugh Jones, University of Hertfordshire, added: "The longer orbit of the new planet means that its climate and atmosphere may be just right to support life. Just as Goldilocks liked her porridge to be neither too hot nor too cold but just right, this planet or indeed any moons that is has lie in an orbit comparable to Earth, increasing the probability of it being habitable."

Earlier this year the Kepler spacecraft found a planet with a similar orbit, however, Kepler 22b is located 600 light years from Earth whereas this new planet HD40307g is located at 42 light years from Earth.

Mikko Tuomi carried out this work as a member of the European science network RoPACS (Rocky Planets Around Cool Stars) - an initiative with a research focus on the search for planets around cool stars. RoPACS has pan-European membership and is led from the University of Hertfordshire by David Pinfield, who commented "discoveries like this are really exciting, and such systems will be natural targets for the next generation of large telescopes, both on the ground and in space".

The international research team was led by Mikko Tuomi (Hertfordshire University) and Guillem Anglada-Escude (University of Goettingen). The presented work also contains significant contributions from E. Gerlach (Technical University of Dresden), Hugh R. A. Jones (University of Hertfordshire), A. Reiners (University of Goettingen), S. Vogt, E. Rivera (UCO-Lick Observatory) and R. P. Butler (Carnegie Institution for Science).

RoPACS (Rocky Planets Around Cool Stars) is a Marie Curie Initial Training Network funded by the European Commissions Seventh Framework Programme. The research of G. Anglada-Escude is being supported by the German Ministry of Education and Research under 05A11MG3. E. Gerlach is supported by the DFG research unit FOR584. A. Reiners acknowledges research funding from DFG grant RE1664/9-1. S. Vogt gratefully acknowledges support from NSF grant AST-0307493 and R. P. Butler thanks the Carnegie Institution for Science for providing continued support to his research activities.

The result is based on reanalysis of spectra taken with the HARPS spectrograph and available through the European Southern Observatory public archive. This work would have not been possible without the ESO public data policies and the excellent work of the ESO Software development division and the ESO Science Archive Facility.

.


Related Links
HD 40307
Lands Beyond Beyond - extra solar planets - news and science
Life Beyond Earth






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








EXO WORLDS
Cosmic sprinklers explained in active planetary nebula
Munich, Germany (SPX) Nov 09, 2012
Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have discovered a pair of stars orbiting each other at the centre of one of the most remarkable examples of a planetary nebula. The new result confirms a long-debated theory about what controls the spectacular and symmetric appearance of the material flung out into space. The results are published in the 9 November 2012 issue of the journal Scie ... read more


EXO WORLDS
Moon crater yields impact clues

Study: Moon basin formed by giant impact

NASA's LADEE Spacecraft Gets Final Science Instrument Installed

Astrium presents results of its study into automatic landing near the Moon's south pole

EXO WORLDS
More Driving And Imaging At 'Matijevic Hill'

Curiosity Team Switches Back to Earth Time

Survey of 'Matijevic Hill' Continues

Mars Longevity Champ Switching Computers

EXO WORLDS
Obama Win Keeps NASA's Space Plans on Course

Next steps into the final frontier

CSA: Canada finds its space in space

Clarkson Professor Co-writes Book Promoting Space Exploration

EXO WORLDS
Mr Xi in Space

China plans manned space launch in 2013: state media

China to launch manned spacecraft

Tiangong 1 Parked And Waiting As Shenzhou 10 Mission Prep Continues

EXO WORLDS
Crew Prepares for Spacewalk After Progress Docks

Crew Preparing for Cargo Ship, Spacewalk

Russian cargo ship docks with ISS: official

Packed Week Ahead for Six-Member Crew

EXO WORLDS
Ariane 5 is poised for Arianespace's launch with the EUTELSAT 21B and Star One C3 satellites

Ariane 5 orbits EUTELSAT 21B and Star One C3 satellites

Arianespace's heavy-lift Ariane 5 flight is cleared for liftoff with EUTELSAT 21B and Star One C3

NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building Prepared for Multiple Rockets

EXO WORLDS
Discovery of a Giant Gap in the Disk of a Sun-like Star May Indicate Multiple Planets

New habitable zone super-Earth found in exosolar system

Cosmic sprinklers explained in active planetary nebula

Nearby six-planet system could be life friendly

EXO WORLDS
India unveils new version of 'world's cheapest tablet'

Buzz building for debut of Wii U videogame console

NASA tests 'interplanetary Internet'

Atmospheric CO2 risks increasing space junk: study




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement