The 5th Planet -A New "Exo" Discovery
Astronomers announced recently that the star 55 Cancri in the Constellation Cancer has at least five planets orbiting it. The star was known to have a planetary system similar to our Solar System for some time, but the existence of a fifth planet was just confirmed, making it the only known system with so many confirmed planets. Even more intriguing is the fact that this newly confirmed planet lies comfortably in the “habitable zone”, sparking hope that this newly discovered world, or possibly orbiting moons, could support some type of life.
Those who are searching for extraterrestrial life are excited for several other reasons as well. 55 Cancri is a Sunlike star with roughly the same mass. It is also about the same age as the Sun. This means that systems like ours might be more common than previously thought. Also, 55 Cancri is not that far away at just 41 light years. Well, okay, that’s pretty far, but considering that the Milky Way is over 100,000 light years across, it’s comparatively close. In fact, astronomers say that finding a system so close to our own implies that they are likely somewhat common throughout the galaxy.
Scientists believe it may be a gas giant planet since its mass is 45 times that of Earth. This is roughly half the mass of Saturn and twice that of Neptune. It may not be able to support life as we know it, but the researchers point out that gas giants tend to have big moons. Current technology is not sensitive to detect moons around the planet if there are any, but it seems likely that there would be one or more orbiting the massive planet.
"The gas-giant planets in our solar system all have large moons," said Debra Fischer, an astronomer at San Francisco State University and lead author of a paper that will appear in a future issue of the Astrophysical Journal. "If there is a moon orbiting this new, massive planet, it might have pools of liquid water on a rocky surface."
At any rate, the announcement is cause for celebration for “earth”-hunters. Finding a stable system with five planets indicates that our own Solar System is not unique in the universe. We now have proof that there are others out there. Back in 1995 we still unsure if any other planets orbiting sunlike stars existed. Now, just over a decade later, they are identifying entire solar systems of planets orbiting nearby stars. It’s incredible and exciting news by any standard. Just imagine what we’ll know 10 years from now!
Posted by Rebecca Sato
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Link:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/newworlds/exoplanet-20071106.html
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