(ORDO NEWS) — An international team of cosmologists has discovered a pair of planets strikingly similar to Neptune and Jupiter.
Moreover, the study showed that they revolve around a star similar in characteristics to our Sun.
The discovery was made as part of an international research project to search for extraterrestrial life. Moreover, the participants in this project take our solar system as a basis.
They remind us that the Earth is not the only planet, there are seven more planets in the solar system that could play a role in the emergence and development of life.
Previous research has also shown that large planets like Jupiter can indeed influence the development of life.
The fact is that they have powerful gravity, and this force field actually protects neighboring planets from asteroid impacts, deflecting the orbit of such bodies.
In addition, it is possible that in ancient times it was Jupiter that “driven” enough small cosmic bodies to the Sun, from which the Earth was then formed.
As part of the new study, scientists were looking for systems similar to our own. And, it seems, they managed to find a potential analogue.
In their paper, they describe a planetary system of a star called HIP 104045, which is located just 175 light-years from Earth.
This is very close, by space standards. It was found that at least two planets revolve around this star, similar in their parameters to some planets in our solar system.
In particular, they reminded scientists of Jupiter and Neptune. True, the discovered worlds, albeit not in size, but in mass, differ from the neighbors of the Earth.
So, one of the newly discovered planets weighs about half as much as Jupiter, and the mass of the other, on the contrary, is 2.5 times the mass of Neptune.
However, scientists note that Earth-like planets are much more common than planets like Jupiter and Neptune.
Therefore, in their opinion, it makes sense to look for star systems with planets like Neptune and Jupiter, and then check whether there are planets similar to Earth in such systems.
They also suggest that the HIP 104045 system could be the basis for such observations. For example, scientists have found that the star HIP 104045 itself is very similar to our Sun.
It is about the same age as our star, and has about the same size and luminosity. Therefore, this system itself is a possible analogue of our solar system.
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.