Australian astronomers announced just find the nearest previously known planet where life would have the potential to continue. Wolf 1061c find a planet in the constellation Ophiuchus, about 14 light years from us. There revolves around its star, the red dwarf after such an orbit that at its surface water can remain in a liquid state. Researchers at the University of New South Wales wrote about it in the magazine “The Astrophysical Journal Letters.”
The possibility that the planet could contain water in liquid form, is – according to astronomers – a basic prerequisite for life as we know them, could be established there and to maintain. If we had the technical capabilities of such a trip and watch for some new headquarters, that at the moment seems to be the most attractive.
“The discovery is particularly interesting, because we have there a system of three planets with masses small enough that they should be terrestrial planets, one of which circulates in the zone habitable where there is liquid water, and therefore even life is potentially possible “, – said first author, Dr. Duncan Wright UNSW.
Three planet orbiting Wolf in 1061 have masses of 1.4, 4.3 and 5.2 times the mass of Earth, orbiting a star within 5, 18 and 67 Earth days. The discovery was made with the help of the HARPS spectrograph installed on the 3.6-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory in La Silla, Chile.
Today we know that small, rocky planets like Earth are common in the universe, so far discovered them rather in the further regions, hundreds of thousands of light years from us. The previous record holder when it comes to the proximity of the earth was Gliese 667Cc, distant 22 light years. She has the potential to be “ready” to live. It is 4.5 times more massive than Earth and orbits its red dwarf star every 28 days. At Wolf 1061c would, however, much closer.
Grzegorz Jasinski
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