Another'earth' in Milky Way?
AP, Paris
Astronomers say they have found a Jupiter-like body circling a distant star in a planetary system like earth.Hugh Jones oT Liverpool John Moores University said his team had discovered the system, illuminated by a star dubbed HD 70642, some 94 light years from earth. Jones was presenting the finding at a conference at the Paris Astrophysics Institute here on Thursday. The star is similar to the Sun in structure and brightness and appears to be about the same age. The planet is travelling around the star in an orbital path similar in shape and distance to the one that Jupiter follows around the sun. The similarities have led the planet-hunters in Jones' team of British, Australian and American scientists to conclude that they have tumbled upon something exciting the possibility of finding another earth in the Milky Way galaxy.
|
This NASA file image shows Jupiter (REAR) and its four planet-size moons, called the Galilean satellites, were photographed in early March 1979 by Voyager 1 and assembled into this collage. They are not to scale but are in their relative positions. It was reported on Thursday that Astronomers searching for signs of a Solar System like our own said they had found a planet very similar to Jupiter orbiting a star resembling the Sun, some 90 light years away from the Earth. The planet was discovered by British, American and Australian astronomers using the 3.9-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope in New South Wales. With a mass twice the size of gas giant Jupiter, the planet circles star HD70642 in the constellation Puppis once in every six years. Photo: AFP |
