Curiosity
Three new habitable planets found, best chance to support life
HD 85512 b, shown in an artist’s impression, has a mass about 3.6 times greater than the Earth. It orbits a sun-like star in the southern constellation Vela (The Sail). (M. Kornmesser/ESO)
The scientific community is buzzing about the recent discovery made by researchers of a previously unknown star system, located about 22 light-years away from Earth, that has three planets which may prove to be habitable to human life.
The newly identified star system is composed of a total of seven planets. Scientists consider a planet to be habitable if the planetary atmosphere can support the development of liquid water which is necessary to life. The German scientists who made the discovery have classified three of the system’s seven planets as potentially being in the “habitable zone”.
The newly discovered planets orbit around a central star known as Gliese 667C and are each roughly four to eight times larger than planet Earth.
Scientists speculate that these habitable planets are either completely covered in water or feature a very rocky terrain. But unlike the Earth, these newly discovered planets do not rotate, which means that one half of the planet is constantly facing the sun while the other half remains in cold and darkness.
“These planets will be among the best targets for future space telescopes to look for signs of life in the planet’s atmosphere by looking for chemical signatures such as oxygen,” said Francesco Pepe, an astronomer at the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland who was the lead author on one of the papers describing the findings.
Any inhabitants of these planets see their Gliese 667C sun appearing in the heavens as a bright red star rather than as a fiery yellow globe as seen from Earth.
On the Web:
Researchers: Newly found planets might support life
http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/26/tech/innovation/new-habitable-planets