Tau Ceti, one of the closest Sun-like stars to our own solar system, may support five planets, says a team of astronomers. The team also believes that one of those planets may be within the star's habitable zone, meaning it's at the right distance to allow liquid water and therefore more likely to be able to support life. While these findings are still preliminary, the researchers say they could be extremely valuable to astronomy. "Tau Ceti is one of our nearest cosmic neighbors and so bright that we may be able to study the atmospheres of these planets in the not-too-distant future," says James Jenkins of the Universidad de Chile.
The news was reported by the University of California Santa Cruz yesterday, and the resulting paper has...
via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/19/3784860/researchers-find-five-planets-around-tau-ceti-one-in-habitable-zone
No comments:
Post a Comment