Two Earth-Sized Planets Orbiting Star Found
Two new planets were found by NASA’s Kepler special
telescope, orbiting a star like Sun. The researchers
responsible for the finding said that both planets are the
same size of Earth, or even smaller. It’s the first finding
since they started looking for extra-terrestrial life.
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"Theoretical considerations imply that these planets are
rocky, with a composition of iron and silicate," wrote
Francois Fressin of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, the leader of
the team that made the discovery.
The two planets, called Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, are too far away to be seen
directly and move around a star about 950 light-years away in the constellation Lyra,
which can be seen in North America during summer. Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f are
too hot to have human-life because they are too close to the Sun; one makes a
complete circuit in six Earth’s days and the other in nineteen Earth’s days. But
scientists believe that, due to this discovery, there are enough reasons to expect that
there are other planets of the same kind.
"It demonstrates for the first time that Earth-sized stars exist around other stars,
and that we are now able to detect them," said Fressin.
The size of Kepler-20f was intriguing because "if it was formed with water, which I
think is possible, it could have been habitable in the past," Linda Elkins-Tanton of the
Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington said.
Actually, scientists know, from looking at Earth's solar system, that rocky worlds like
ours are a precious commodity. “Put the two finds together”, say scientists, “and
chances are good that someday soon we will find a planet with just the right size and
temperature to have at least a chance of being an inhabitable place.”
Débora Santana, 12.ºA