Scientists Discover New Planet
L O N D O N, Aug. 5 -- A team of international astronomers saidthey had discovered a new planet, possibly bigger thanJupiter, in a nearby solar system.
The yet-to-be-named planet orbits the star Epsilon Eridani,the closest star to Earth that has a circling planet and isbright enough to be seen with the naked eye.
Backyard Discovery
“Detecting a planet orbiting Epsilon Eridani — a star verysimilar to our own Sun — is like finding a planet in our ownbackyard,” team leader Dr William Cochran said in a statement.
“Not only is this planet nearby, it lies 478 millionkilometers [297 million miles] from its central star — roughlythe distance from the sun to the asteroid belt in our own solarsystem,” the astronomer at the University of Texas McDonaldObservatory in Austin added.
The distance between the planet and its star opens up thepossibility that there could be Earth-like planets closer toEpsilon Eridani — in a zone that Cochran said might behabitable.
The team will announce the discovery at the InternationalAstronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly on Monday. Two thousandastronomers from 87 countries will participate in the 11-day conference.
Jumbo Size
They estimate that the new planet, one of several expectedto be announced during the assembly, is bigger than Jupiter, thelargest planet in our Solar System.
It is made up mostly of gas, and its eccentric orbit lastsjust under seven years, about 60 percent as long as Jupiter’s.
Astronomers consider stable orbits, like those of the Earthand other nearby planets, an important factor in the developmentof life.
“The exciting thing about this discovery is that having alarge planet orbiting fairly far out from Epsilon Eridani meansthere could be room for Earth-like planets in a reasonablystable orbit closer to the star,” Cochran explained.
The astronomers found the planet using data sets from fourdifferent telescopes with three different measuring techniques.
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