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Space & Astronomy

Astronomers discover familiar solar system

By T.K. Randall
May 3, 2017 · Comment icon 4 comments

Analyzing distant solar systems can tell us more about our own. Image Credit: NASA
A young solar system located a mere 10 light years away appears to be remarkably similar to our own.
Discovered recently in the constellation Eradinus, the solar system surrounding the star Epsilon Eridani is not only very similar to our own but is also the closest known solar system with a star that is essentially a younger version of the Sun.

For this reason, it should be able to tell us much about how our own solar system came in to being.

"This star hosts a planetary system currently undergoing the same cataclysmic processes that happened to the solar system in its youth, at the time in which the moon gained most of its craters, Earth acquired the water in its oceans, and the conditions favorable for life on our planet were set," wrote study co-author and astronomer Massimo Marengo.
Observations using NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) indicate that this distant solar system is home to an inner and outer disk with a prominent gap between them.

"There is a gap most likely created by planets," said Marengo.

"We haven't detected them yet, but I would be surprised if they are not there. Seeing them will require using the next-generation instrumentation, perhaps NASA's 6.5-meter James Webb Space Telescope scheduled for launch in October 2018."

Source: Independent | Comments (4)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #1 Posted by Frank Merton 7 years ago
It begins to look as though in a little while we will know about thousands of Earth-like planets, no doubt many of them having chemical signatures that look like life in their atmospheres. What then?  If nobody wants or can talk to us, it looks like we might be stymied until we can actually get probes to them, and that will take hundreds if not thousands of years.
Comment icon #2 Posted by BeastieRunner 7 years ago
The issue is more about propulsion, correct?
Comment icon #3 Posted by Frank Merton 7 years ago
Well technology may have already solved that, or soon will.  The problem is sheer distance and the fact that you can't surpass the speed of light, and have to slow down once you are there.  If an object is about four light-years away, then the minimum travel time is probably about five years.  That is the nearest possible target.  Most are thousands if not millions of light years away. Who knows how separated life, let alone technology, may be.  The Drake equation made a crude effort at estimating that, and comes out with optimistic results by skipping most of the steps that may be even m... [More]
Comment icon #4 Posted by The Silver Thong 7 years ago
10.5 lightyears is close


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