A team of astronomers has found two Earth-like planets located in habitable zones, as well as a strange “cold Neptune,” according to a study published in the magazine. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.
The pert super-’s orbit around the red dwarf stars GJ229A and GJ180, which are located about 19 light years and 39 light years from Earth, respectively, a short distance in astronomical terms.
Red dwarfs are much smaller and dimmer than our Sun. Its “habitable zones,” where liquid water could be stable on the surface, They are much closer to their star compared to the Solar System.
The new planets, known as GJ180 d and GJ229A c, orbit far enough to avoid blocking the tides, a phenomenon that makes only one face of the planet can be seen, as is the case with the Moon.
“GJ180 d is the closest‘ super-earth ’closest to us that is not blocked by tides, which increases your likelihood of being able to house and sustain life, ”said team leader Fabo Feng of Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC
GJ180 d is a planet at least 7.5 times larger than Earth, while GJ229A c houses at least 7.9 Earth masses. The first completes an orbit every 106 Earth days, and GJ229A c does it every 122 Earth days.
GJ229A c is located in a binary system consisting of a red dwarf and a brown dwarf, objects known as “failed stars”, are larger than the giant gas planets but not enough to harbor fusion reactions in their nucleus.
While, the newly discovered “cold Neptune”, GJ 433 d, is not a good candidate for life, according to the researchers. It is at least 4.9 times more massive than Earth and orbits a faint red dwarf just 29.5 light years from Earth.
“GJ 433 d is the closest, widest and coldest Neptune-like planet ever detected,” Feng said.
Astronomers hope to continue studying these exoplanets thanks to the relative closeness and the new NASA James Webb Space Telescope can also be used, which will be the most powerful ever built.
“Ultimately, we are working towards the goal of being able to determine if the planets that orbit around nearby stars harbor life,” says Feng.
The new generation instrumentation with which observation systems are endowed – both from Earth and from space – will allow these “neighbors” (the star and their planets) to be studied in depth over the next few years, since this is the only one system to which mankind can send probes for direct study.
Next Centauri is a “dwarf” star (eight times smaller than the Sun) but research is revealing that it has a complex planetary system and especially interesting because of its proximity to Earth, said the Higher Council for Scientific Research.
IAA scientist Pedro J. Amado has highlighted the enormous interest that a star and its planets so close to the Solar System arouses and the importance that the Gaia space mission, currently underway, can corroborate that it is indeed a second planet and that the signals are not due to a cycle of Superficial star activity of the star itself.
Pedro J. Amado has detailed that, in addition to the two already discovered, it does not seem feasible that there are large planets orbiting around Next Centauri, although there could be small planets – equivalent in size to the Earth – that would not have yet been detected by the lack of sensitivity of the instruments currently used for observation.
“Are we really alone in the universe ?; Could it be that we had a neighbor around the corner and we have not yet found him?” Asked the astrophysicist to underpin the importance of these investigations and these discoveries, “why they open our eyes to our closest surroundings, to our possible closest neighbors, within the immensity of the Universe itself. “
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