A team of astronomers have announced that Tau Ceti - a star 12 light years away from Earth- has five planets revolving around it and one of them may be in the habitable zone of the star.
The habitable zone of a star is the zone where the conditions for liquid water to exist are perfect, neither too hot nor too cold. This star Tau Ceti e or Super Earth (as it is being called) is 4.3 times the mass of Earth.
It is quite difficult to check the existence of planets of our size near stars because of the distortion in data so the team of astronomers were trying to adapt new model for finding the planets which they hoped will be more sensitive. The team of astronomers set the bright and nearby Tau Ceti as the benchmark for the trial of the new system. In the end, the results show a solar system consisting of five planets of Tau Ceti.
Although other methods have to be applied for further confirmation of results, the existence of planets will prove the new model as a vible way of finding new planets a in far-off areas of the Galaxy as well.
Tau Ceti has Been the source of inspiration to scince-fiction for a very long time. It is also a curious project for astronomers for finding the extra-terrestrial life, to finally say that we are not alone in the universe. It is closest to the Earth( The closest is Alpha Centauri but it is a part of trinary star system) .
Still the star is 12 light years away and a tremendous advancements has to be done is astronomy to fianlly reach the star within even a century.
Maybe one day we will finally be able to send someone in space to reach the life like us.
The habitable zone of a star is the zone where the conditions for liquid water to exist are perfect, neither too hot nor too cold. This star Tau Ceti e or Super Earth (as it is being called) is 4.3 times the mass of Earth.
It is quite difficult to check the existence of planets of our size near stars because of the distortion in data so the team of astronomers were trying to adapt new model for finding the planets which they hoped will be more sensitive. The team of astronomers set the bright and nearby Tau Ceti as the benchmark for the trial of the new system. In the end, the results show a solar system consisting of five planets of Tau Ceti.
Although other methods have to be applied for further confirmation of results, the existence of planets will prove the new model as a vible way of finding new planets a in far-off areas of the Galaxy as well.
Tau Ceti has Been the source of inspiration to scince-fiction for a very long time. It is also a curious project for astronomers for finding the extra-terrestrial life, to finally say that we are not alone in the universe. It is closest to the Earth( The closest is Alpha Centauri but it is a part of trinary star system) .
Still the star is 12 light years away and a tremendous advancements has to be done is astronomy to fianlly reach the star within even a century.
Maybe one day we will finally be able to send someone in space to reach the life like us.
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