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  • Subject: Five new planets orbit a nearby star
Subject: Five new planets orbit a nearby star

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Source.

Tau Ceti has long been a science fiction favourite for planets, featuring in episodes of Star Trek as well as classic works from the writers such as Isaac Isamov, Arthur C Clarke and Robert Heinlein.

Now an international team of astronomers has discovered that the star may host five planets orbiting around it, including one in the so-called habitable zone.

Tau Ceti is one of the closest stars to the Earth at a distance of only 12 light years which will make its planetary system a leading candidate to examine any signs of life. In fact it has already been a prime target for the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) team before this new discovery was made

The astronomers, from the USA, UK, Chile and Australia, have combined more than 6,000 observations using spectrographs on three giant telescopes - the 3.6 metre telescope at the European Southern Observatory in La Silla, Chile, the Anglo-Australian Telescope in Siding Spring, Australia, and the 10 metre Keck telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. They then used a computer-modelling technique to pick out signals from smaller worlds that can be usually detected.

The allowed them to conclude that there are five planets in the Tau Ceti system with masses between two and six times that of the Earth. One which lies in the zone where water could exist in a liquid state is about five times more massive than Earth. That makes it the smallest planet yet found in the habitable zone of a star like the sun.

More than 800 extrasolar planets have been discovered in the last 20 years, the bulk of them huge gaseous worlds dubbed "hot Jupiters". But nearby stars are of special interest because smaller worlds in orbit around them will be easier to find.

The latest discovery is being announced in a paper accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, and comes two months after it was revealed that an Earth-sized planet is in orbit around Alpha Centauri B, a star in the closest solar system to Earth, just 4.3 light-years away.


Pretty interesting.

  • 12.19.2012 8:49 AM PDT

Posted by: puck88
Posted by: Holden Caulfield
"You're a phony"

Garem is a hero, you autistic.

inb4nibiru'sthere.

[Edited on 12.19.2012 8:52 AM PST]

  • 12.19.2012 8:51 AM PDT

On the Left

Godshatter: I can go all the way with someone without being attracted to them.
CamCamm: How does that work?
Godshatter: I'm easily aroused by anything that moves. It's a curse.
Brain says 'No, that's ugly', body says 'ugly is fine with me'.

They just need to send trained volunteers out into space. Them knowing that they will never come back. And i guess a big enough ship. I say 50 ppl + the ship crew. Large enough population to make babies and live another generation out in space.

  • 12.19.2012 8:56 AM PDT

Allons-y!


Posted by: Razgriz Berkut
They just need to send trained volunteers out into space. Them knowing that they will never come back. And i guess a big enough ship. I say 50 ppl + the ship crew. Large enough population to make babies and live another generation out in space.


...

  • 12.19.2012 8:56 AM PDT
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Never thought there will be planets around Tau Ceti because it's metal poor.

Guess I was wrong.

  • 12.19.2012 8:57 AM PDT

SCIENCE!

  • 12.19.2012 8:57 AM PDT

Posted by: Alex Mac Kee
If pen­ises were planes Jimmy's mouth would be an airport


Posted by: DarkBen64
Don't punch a British kid, the queen'll come after you.

Posted by: Razgriz Berkut
They just need to send trained volunteers out into space. Them knowing that they will never come back. And i guess a big enough ship. I say 50 ppl + the ship crew. Large enough population to make babies and live another generation out in space.
The amount of energy required to get to our nearest star alone is more than the entire earth produces so I think that should be sorted out first.

  • 12.19.2012 8:57 AM PDT

Driven by success.
Follow me if you wish:@JamilDeanTriaa


Posted by: Razgriz Berkut
They just need to send trained volunteers out into space. Them knowing that they will never come back. And i guess a big enough ship. I say 50 ppl + the ship crew. Large enough population to make babies and live another generation out in space.


They'd also need a lot of food supply.

  • 12.19.2012 8:57 AM PDT

On the Left

Godshatter: I can go all the way with someone without being attracted to them.
CamCamm: How does that work?
Godshatter: I'm easily aroused by anything that moves. It's a curse.
Brain says 'No, that's ugly', body says 'ugly is fine with me'.

So ^
Posted by: LC o MagiikZ

Posted by: Razgriz Berkut
They just need to send trained volunteers out into space. Them knowing that they will never come back. And i guess a big enough ship. I say 50 ppl + the ship crew. Large enough population to make babies and live another generation out in space.


They'd also need a lot of food supply.

And So.

Im sure by the time we even get a big enough ship, we'll have all that sorted out.

  • 12.19.2012 9:00 AM PDT
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Posted by: Razgriz Berkut
They just need to send trained volunteers out into space. Them knowing that they will never come back. And i guess a big enough ship. I say 50 ppl + the ship crew. Large enough population to make babies and live another generation out in space.


Until we can perfect some form of cryo sleep and an energy source/more efficient means of travelling through space. Which probably won't happen in our lifetime.

  • 12.19.2012 9:01 AM PDT

Posted by: Alex Mac Kee
If pen­ises were planes Jimmy's mouth would be an airport


Posted by: DarkBen64
Don't punch a British kid, the queen'll come after you.

Posted by: Razgriz Berkut
Im sure by the time we even get a big enough ship, we'll have all that sorted out.
You can't just handwave things like that, they need to be thought about.

  • 12.19.2012 9:05 AM PDT