Space: three habitable planets discovered around a star - Metronews

sister planets not very far from Earth. Finally still at 22 light years, or about 220 000 billion kilometers. These super-Earths were discovered by a team of astronomers by combining existing data with new observations, said yesterday the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in a statement.

They revolve around the star Gliese 667C, a “mass equivalent to a third of the mass of the Sun”, which belongs to tristellaire system Gliese 667, itself built in the constellation Scorpio. Already, “previous studies have shown that Gliese 667C star housed three planets, one of which was located in the habitable zone,” said ESO.

team of astronomers led by Guillem Anglada-Escudé from the University of Göttingen in Germany and Mikko Tuomi at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom, have, meanwhile, been able to prove the existence of seven any planets around Gliese 667C, the lowest of tristellaire star system.

in the habitable zone of the star

Three of these planets were found to be super-Earths – more massive than Earth but less massive than giant planets like Uranus and Neptune. They occupy the habitable zone of Gliese 667C, a thin band around the star and in which water may be present in liquid form if conditions are right. This is the first time that three planets of this type have been identified in this area of ??the same system.

“We knew from previous studies that the star was surrounded by three planets, so we wanted to check the possible existence of other planets, says Mikko Tuomi. Adding new observations and revisiting existing data, we were able to confirm the existence of these three bodies and discover new ones. ”