July 2, 2003, 11:02PM Distant planet's orbit provides hint Los Angeles Times Another planet has been added to the list of 100 or so worlds that astronomers have discovered around distant stars -- but unlike all those other planets, this one is in a solar system that may be capable of supporting another Earth. The discovery, which was announced recently at a conference in Paris and is to be published in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical Journal, marks the first time that the search for extrasolar worlds has produced a planet orbiting in a system so strikingly similar to our own. "This planet and its orbit are quite reminiscent of Jupiter," said Brad Carter, an astronomer at the University of Southern Queensland and lead author of the upcoming Astrophysical Journal article. The planet, which is a gas giant about twice the size of Jupiter, travels around a star very much like our own sun in a nearly circular orbit about three-fifths the size of that of our solar system's resident giant. Located 90 light years from Earth in the southern sky constellation Puppis, this planet circles its sun, known as HD70642, every six years. What is most interesting about this system, though, is what the astronomers didn't find. Unlike other systems with Jupiter-like planets orbiting at Jupiter-like distances, this system does not have any other gas giants closer to its sun in the region where liquid water could exist -- the so-called habitable zone. The finding suggests that this void could be filled by smaller, rocky planets. "If we see a big empty gap," said astronomer Debra A. Fischer, co-author of the Astrophysical Journal article, "we have to wonder if it's really empty." Because the Jupiter-like planet is in a stable circular orbit, it's a good indication that smaller, more Earth-like planets could also be in stable orbits. The vast majority of the 100 or so extrasolar planets that astronomers have discovered are in somewhat chaotic orbits, making it unlikely that a tiny rocky planet could remain in the habitable zone long enough for advanced life forms to evolve. The larger gas giants would most likely kick them out. The technique that astronomers used to discover this planet, along with the majority of the other planets found over the last decade, will not reveal any "Earths," which would be too small to detect. The method, which Carnegie Institution of Washington astronomer Paul Butler pioneered with Geoff Marcy, a University of California at Berkeley astronomer, is known as the Doppler Wobble technique. True to its name, this technique detects the slight "wobble" that stars exhibit when their large planets tug on them. The larger the planet, the more the stars wobble, making it much easier to detect huge gas giants than tiny rocky worlds. "It doesn't seem possible that we can detect Earth-like worlds in Earth-like orbits using ground-based technology," Carter said, referring to the 4-meter Anglo-Australian Telescope used to detect the newest extrasolar planet. "What we're doing is laying the groundwork for future missions." Even though this latest find doesn't give direct evidence that another Earth exists, Carter added: "It improves the chances that there are Earth-like worlds and life out there among the stars." NASA has a trio of spacecraft missions in the works to aid the search for planets like our own. Kepler, due for launch in 2007, will be the first of the missions to pick up where ground-based telescopes leave off. Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/space/1977919
Thanks, Princess. Someday we'll be able to identify planets that seem to be very much like our own. I hope we find one real "close"... something so definitive that humanity would give serious thought to checking it out up close and personal. In the meantime, we need to protect the one we've got. We need the ability to protect the Earth from asteroids and comets that will inevitably be on a collision course with this colorful marble we live on.
Only 90 light years away, thats like a neighbor a block away. Its only a matter of time before we find life out there.
As advanced as we like to think of ourselves it saddens me that I won't get to live in a time when we aren't confined to this tiny insignifigant rock located in the infinity of space. Thanks for the read Princess.
Has anybody given any thought as to why we are confined to the planet. Surely their is a reason. That is if you believe in Science. We must have a purpose as an entity.
Define "we". There's nothing to say there aren't more "we's" in other areas of the universe. You can also tackle the question from the angle that "we" are just right for this planet and not "this planet is just right for us". After all, there may be some "bizarre" species that drinks ammonia and breathes sulphur on some other planet thinking about the same thing. Why? Seriously, I think some of the earliest religions came into being because our ancestors tried to answer this very question : "what is our purpose?" BTW, I wish more people would post more science-related stuff. Some of this is fascinating.
