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Scientists have discovered five ancient terrestrial planets from another star



The other day, an international team of astronomers published a paper that says about the discovery of the Kepler-444 planetary system. The distance to this system is 117 light years, which, by cosmic standards, is not too far away. But the most interesting thing is not this, but the fact that the five planets in this system belong to the terrestrial type. Even more interesting is that the planets, apparently, are very ancient - scientists estimate their age at 11.2 billion years.

All planets are located at distances of up to 0.1 astronomical units from their star. Around its own luminary the planets rotate rather quickly. Astronomers estimate the rate of turnover of the near planet at 3.6 days, and distant - 9.7 days. The size of the planets is smaller than the size of the Earth, and is estimated from 0.4 to 0.74 of the Earth's radius.

The data from the Kepler telescope, obtained by scientists earlier, suggests that the planets should be rocky if they are less than 1.7 of the Earth’s radius, and gaseous if they are larger than this value. As far as can be judged by this feature, all five discovered planets should be rocky .
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According to scientists, the location of the planes of the orbits of the planets and the peculiarities of their rotation is such that all five planets often line up in one line. Thus, if you are on the planet farthest from the luminary of this system, then at some moments you can see all five planets lined up in a row.

Unfortunately, all five planets are too close to their luminary, and the temperature of the planets is too high, which does not imply the availability of conditions suitable for the emergence of life. However, since rocky planets are common to the Universe (and apparently, it is), and life is most likely formed on rocky planets, then life should not be uncommon.

Now scientists are trying to find out the composition of the planets and some other parameters, for which the Keck telescope is used. The density of the planets cannot yet be calculated, since their approximate mass is unknown. The planets are too small for their mass to be measured from Earth.

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/375939/


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