FREE CONTENT: A team of scientists recently discovered a system of three planets, each just larger than Earth, orbiting a nearby star called EPIC 201367065. The three planets are one and a half to two times the size of Earth, according to W. M. Keck Observatory. The outermost planet orbits on the edge of the so-called “habitable zone,” where the temperature may be just right for liquid water, believed necessary to support life, on the planet’s surface. The paper, “A Nearby M Star with Three Transiting Super-Earths Discovered by K2,” was submitted to the Astrophysical Journal on Friday and is available online at arxiv.org/abs/1501.03798. “The compositions of these newfound planets are unknown, but, there is a very real possibility the outer planet is rocky like Earth,” said Erik Petigura, a University of California, Berkeley graduate student who spent a year visiting the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy. “If so, this planet could have the right temperature to support liquid water oceans.”
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 22:00:11 +0000