Two alien planets 'brothers' of the Earth, very similar to our planet in size, have been discovered around a red dwarf that is only 16 light-years away, in the direction of the constellation of the Whale: both orbit at a distance from their ideal star to keep water in a liquid state, and would therefore potentially be able to host life.
The discovery,
to be published
in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, was made by an international group of researchers led by the Spanish Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (Iac), in which researchers from the National Institute of Astrophysics (Inaf) also participated. and of the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa.
“Nature seems determined to prove that Earth-like exoplanets are very common,” comments Alejandro Suárez Mascareño, who led the study: “With these two, we already know 7 of them in nearby systems.”
The two newly identified planets orbit the star GJ 1002, a dim star with only 12% of the mass of our Sun. The innermost, GJ 1002 b completes a complete orbit in just 10 days, while the second, GJ 1002c, takes 21 days.
The proximity of the star to our solar system makes both planets excellent candidates for further in-depth study.
“We expect to be able to investigate the presence of an atmosphere using the Andes tool, whose design is led by Italy and in which Inaf is heavily involved – says Alessandro Sozzetti of Inaf, co-author of the study.
“Andes will be installed on the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the largest telescope in the world with its main mirror measuring 39 meters in diameter, now under construction in the Chilean desert”.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/TQ73US57UFGWTIXR7C3BS2OTIA.jpg)
