UCSC astronomer Steven Vogt and his team have recently discovered six new planets circling nearby stars.
Is there hope for humanity somewhere else in the cosmos? Astronomers are in a race to find out, and one of the leaders of the team is UCSC’s own Steven Vogt. Using the W.M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, he and his team have recently discovered six new planets circling nearby stars. Though several hundred extra-solar planets have been discovered over the past ten years, what makes these planets special is that they are “super-earths,” planets more massive than earth, but not as large as a gas giant like Jupiter. They are the first super-earths found around sun-like stars.
One of the stars that Vogt focused on was 61 Virginis in constellation Virgo. The star, which can be seen from earth with the naked eye, is just 28 light years away from Earth, and very similar to our own Sun. Researchers now know that at least three planets orbit it, including one five times larger than our own planet. They suspect it is a rocky planet, just like our own planet is. Slightly further away is another super-earth, orbiting HD 1461, another star very similar to our own sun, 76 light years away. That planet is 7.5 times the size of Earth.
The discoveries indicate that Earth-like planets are probably more common than was previously thought. According to Vogt, “The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away.” With all the problems we are facing on our own planet, that could be a consoling thought. Read more at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and Red Orbit.
