SIMILAR SOLAR SYSTEM FOUND
The discovery of a solar system resembling our own was announced yesterday. The research was done by an international team of researchers from the US, UK, and Australia, and was announced by scientists Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution and Geoffrey Marcy of UC Berkeley, whose team discovered the first extra-solar planets in the mid-1990s.
The planets in this system orbit a star called 55 Cancri, located in the constellation of Cancer. This star�s distance is only 41 lightyears from our sun, which places it relatively in our backyard. Actually, it had already been known since 1996 that at least one planet orbits 55 Cancri, when a gas giant just smaller than Jupiter was found circling the star at the incredibly close distance of just 9 million miles. Last Thursday�s announcement, however, was of the discovery of yet another planet in this system. It is reckoned to be 3 to 5 times the size of Jupiter, and orbits 55 Cancri at a distance of about 450 to 500 million miles in an elliptical orbit that takes approximately 13 years to complete. It is believed that more planets not yet discovered also orbit the star.
Calculations done by University of California researchers show that there may be a so-called �habitable zone� wherein an earth-like planet could reside in a stable orbit. While we don�t yet have the equipment to find planets the size of earth, such technology will be on the scene in about ten years, beginning with NASA�s Terrestrial Planet Finder mission. 55 Cancri�s system provides a good target for such upcoming searches. As Carnegie�s Paul Butler says, �We haven�t yet found an exact solar system analog� but this shows we are getting close.�
current science news posted by ted at 6/14/2002 05:52:00 PM
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