Could it be? Astronomers have spotted what could be a planet in a
solar system whose conditions are closest to those of our own.
But whether the planet in the Tau Ceti system —about 12 light years
away from us— is habitable has yet to be confirmed, Science Magazine
reported.
A closer look at Tau Ceti
A closer look at Tau Ceti
"Tau Ceti's three innermost planets ... are probably too hot to support
life, being so close to the star that they require only 14, 35, and 94
days to complete an orbit. The farthest of the three ... is about as
close to Tau Ceti as Mercury is to the sun," it said.
Tau Ceti, at 12 light years away, is the closest single star beyond our
solar system whose temperature and luminosity almost match our Sun's.
Researchers are not discounting the possibility one of the five planets
orbiting it is just far enough from the Sun to support life, with
liquid water and cool temperatures.
Science Mag said Tau Ceti is just three times as far as our Sun's nearest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri.
"Tau Ceti resembles the sun so much that astronomer Frank Drake, who
has long sought radio signals from possible extraterrestrial
civilizations, made it his first target back in 1960," it noted.
And unlike most stars which are faint, cool, and small, Tau Ceti is like our Sun: a bright G-type yellow main-sequence star.
University of Hertfordshire (UK) astronomer Mikko Tuomi and his
colleagues analyzed more than 6,000 observations of Tau Ceti from
telescopes in Chile, Australia, and Hawaii.
They
noted slight changes in Tau Ceti's motion through space, suggesting
that the star may be responding to gravitational tugs from five planets
two to seven times as massive as Earth.
"If
that's right, all five planets lie closer to their star than Mars does
to ours; however, Tau Ceti emits only 45 percent as much light as the
sun, so each planet receives less warmth than a planet would at the same
distance from our sun," it added. — TJD, GMA News
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