Super-Earth
1 of 50 Newfound Alien Planets, Could Potentially Support Life
|
| This artist’s impression shows the alien planet HD 85512b
orbiting the Sun-like star HD 85512 in the southern constellation of
Vela (The Sail). It orbits a star 35 light-years from Earth and weighs
the equivalent of 3.6 Earth masses and may be in the habitable zone. CREDIT: ESO/M. Kornmesser |
by Denise Chow, SPACE.com Staff Writer
More than 50 new alien planets — including one so-called super-Earth
that could potentially support life — have been discovered by an
exoplanet-hunting telescope from the European Southern Observatory
(ESO).
The newfound haul of alien planets includes 16 super-Earths,
which are potentially rocky worlds that are more massive than our
planet. One in particular - called HD 85512 b - has captured
astronomers' attention because it orbits at the edge of its star's habitable zone, suggesting conditions could be ripe to support life.
The exoplanet findings came from observations from the High Accuracy
Radial velocity Planet Searcher instrument, or HARPS. The HARPS
spectrograph is part of ESO's 11.8-foot (3.6-meter) telescope at the La
Silla Observatory in Chile
“The harvest of discoveries from HARPS has exceeded all expectations
and includes an exceptionally rich population of super-Earths and
Neptune-type planets hosted by stars very similar to our sun," HARPS
team leader Michel Mayor of the University of Geneva in Switzerland said
in a statement. "And even better — the new results show that the pace
of discovery is accelerating."
This
artist’s impression shows the planet HD 85512b orbiting the Sun-like
star HD 85512 about 35 light-years from Earth. This planet is about 3.6
times as massive as the Earth is at the edge of the habitable zone
around the star, where liquid water, and perhaps even life, could
potentially exist.
CREDIT: ESO/M. Kornmesser
CREDIT: ESO/M. Kornmesser
The potentially habitable super-Earth, officially called HD 85512 b, is
estimated to be only 3.6 times more massive than Earth, and its parent
star is located about 35 light-years away, making it relatively nearby.
HD 85512 b was found to orbit at the edge of its star's habitable zone, which is a narrow region in which the distance is just right that liquid water could exist given the right conditions.
"This is the lowest-mass confirmed planet discovered by the radial
velocity method that potentially lies in the habitable zone of its star,
and the second low-mass planet discovered by HARPS inside the habitable
zone,” said exoplanet habitability expert Lisa Kaltenegger, of the Max
Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany and Harvard Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics in Boston.
Further analysis of HD 85512 b and the other newfound exoplanets will be able to determine more about the potential existence of water on the surface.
"I think we're in for an incredibly exciting time," Kaltenegger told
reporters in a briefing today (Sept. 12). "We're not just going out
there to discover new continents — we're actually going out there to
discover brand new worlds.
The HARPS spectrograph is designed to detect tiny radial velocity
signals induced by planets as small as Earth if they orbit close to
their star.
Astronomers used HARPS to observe 376 sunlike stars. By studying the
properties of all the alien planets detected by HARPS so far,
researchers found that approximately 40 percent of stars similar to the
sun is host to at least one planet that is less massive than the gas
giant Saturn.
In other words, approximately 40 percent of sunlike stars have at least
one low-mass planet orbiting around it. On the other hand, the majority
of alien planets with a mass similar to Neptune appear to be in systems
with multiple planets, researchers said.
Astronomers have previously discovered 564 confirmed alien planets,
with roughly 1,200 additional candidate worlds under investigation based
on data from the Kepler space observatory, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
ref: http://www.space.com
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