Scientists Discover 3 New Planets Outside the Solar System<\/p>\n
S\u00e3o Paulo – Three new planets outside the Solar System have been discovered by US scientists from data obtained from NASA’s Kepler space telescope.<\/p>\n
One is in its star’s so-called ‘habitable zone’, that is, a distance that would allow liquid water to exist on its surfaces – an indispensable condition for the potential existence of life, according to astronomers.<\/p>\n
In the first week of January, another group from the United States announced the discovery of eight other planets in its stars’ habitable zone, with distances from Earth ranging from 475 to 1100 light years.<\/p>\n
Beyond them, Kepler’s data has led to the discovery of over a thousand planets.<\/p>\n
The new discovery, however, is considered the most promising so far in the search for Earth-like planets.<\/p>\n
The three new planets are in orbit around EPIC star 201367065, which is about 150 light years from Earth.<\/p>\n
According to the study’s authors, this distance – considered small on an astronomical scale – will allow for the first time the study of a planet in the habitable zone with current instruments and technologies.<\/p>\n
Led by researchers from the universities of Arizona, California, and Hawaii, the new study was funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF).<\/p>\n
The article has been submitted to Astrophysical Journal, but has no date yet to be published.<\/p>\n
The EPIC star 201367065, according to the authors, is a red dwarf that is approximately half the size and mass of the sun and therefore emits less heat and light.<\/p>\n
At 150 light years, the star is among the 10 closest to where planets have ever been found.<\/p>\n
The proximity and characteristics of the star, according to astronomers, will allow the unprecedented study of the planets’ atmospheres to determine if they are Earth-like and could have life.<\/p>\n
Most of the planets discovered by the Kepler mission so far are surrounded by a thick, hydrogen-rich atmosphere that is probably incompatible with life.<\/p>\n
The dimensions of the new planets are 110%, 70% and 50% larger than Earth.<\/p>\n
The smallest one, which has the farthest orbit of its star, receives light radiation levels similar to what the earth receives from the sun, according to Erik Petigura, a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley.<\/p>\n
He discovered the planets on January 6, while performing a computational analysis of Kepler data.<\/p>\n
According to Petigura, there is a real possibility that the outermost planet may be rocky, like Earth – meaning that it could have the right temperature for the formation of oceans of liquid water.<\/p>\n
Andrew Howard of the University of Hawaii said exoplanets – the planets outside the solar system – are being discovered by the hundreds today, though astronomers are uncertain whether any of them actually have Earth-like conditions.<\/p>\n
According to him, the new discovery will help solve this issue.<\/p>\n
The next step will be to study the atmospheres of the new planet with the Hubble telescope and other observatories to find out what elements exist in its atmosphere.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe learned last year that planets the size and temperature of the earth are common in the Milky Way. We also discovered some Earth-sized planets that appear to be made of the same materials that predominate on our planet, such as stone and iron, \u201dhe said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Scientists Discover 3 New Planets Outside the Solar System S\u00e3o Paulo – Three new planets outside the Solar System have been discovered by US scientists from data obtained from NASA’s Kepler space telescope. One is in its star’s so-called ‘habitable zone’, that is, a distance that would allow liquid water to exist on its surfaces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":436,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[486,808],"blacklist":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.richmondmakers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.richmondmakers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.richmondmakers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.richmondmakers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/436"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.richmondmakers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.richmondmakers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.richmondmakers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.richmondmakers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.richmondmakers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5847"},{"taxonomy":"blacklist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.richmondmakers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blacklist?post=5847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}