![]() And to read more about the search for life, see Hunting for life in alien If you'd like to find out more about how planets form from minuscule specks of Scientists to accurately measure the size of the planets relative to In the intensity of the light received from the star enables When the planets pass across the stellar disc. The planets were then detected from the dimming that occurs Measure its diameter, mass and age (you can find out more about asteroseismology Oscillations lead to miniscule changes which allow the researchers to Host star which are caused by sound trapped within it. The new worlds were discovered using something calledĪsteroseismology - listening to the natural resonances of the Planet formation in the Galaxy is now unfolding before us." Result, the path towards a more complete understanding of early Of Birmingham, who played a leading role in the research. Glimpses of the variety of galactic environments conducive to theįormation of these small worlds," says Bill Chaplin of the University Shed important light on how planets form. But scientists still hope that the discovery will The answer is "no": the newly-discovered planets are too close to It's tempting to imagine them hosting super-advanced civilisations Newly-discovered planets could harbour life. The first question most people are likely to ask is whether those The Guardian's science correspondent Ian Sample wrote: "Researchers cannot say whether the planet is hospitable to life, but if it has an atmosphere and clouds, the surface could be cool enough for life to survive.An illustration of Kepler-444 and its five planets. Life-sustaining characteristics - or maybe not: In a statement, Mr Sasselov said that Kepler-10c has positive implications for life. He added that Kepler-10c has positive implications for life. And if you can make rocks, you can make life," says CfA researcher and Harvard Origins of Life Initiative director Dimitar Sasselov. So Kepler-10c's discovery suggests that "rocky planets could form much earlier than we thought. Silicon and iron - heavy elements need to make rocky planets like Kepler-10c - were rare then. Apparently, host star Kepler-10 is about 11 billion years, which means that it formed only about three billion years after the Big Bang. Head-scratcher attributes: Astronomers are surprised at the discovery as they conventionally work on the premise that any planet this size would pull so much hydrogen as it forms and become a gas giant - Neptune, Saturn and Jupiter are examples - but it didn't.Įqually mysterious are Kepler-10c's age and abundant iron and silicon composition. He said, "This is a planet that doesn't fit the usual models of planetary formation." Host/parent star: Kepler-10, a sunlike star which Kepler 10c circles once every 45 days.ĭiscoverer: Mr Xavier Dumusque, a researcher at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). Location: About 560 light-years from Earth in the constellation Dracoįirst glimpse: 2011, but at the time, only its size was known Kepler 10c has the distinction of being the first in the category. Size: 29,000km across (Earth is 13,000km across)Ĭlass: Mega-Earth, an alien world that dwarfs the other rocky planets known to exist outside the solar system, as described by The Guardian.
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