Two Super-Earth Exoplanets Discovered By Astronomers
TWO SUPER-EARTH EXOPLANETS – Astronomers recently discovered two super-Earth exoplanets which were orbiting a star that is 11 light-years away from the Earth.
According to CNN, a new study from the said astronomers also said that there might be a potential third planet that is orbiting a bit further away from the said star.
The nearby planetary system’s proximity allows it to be studied further in the future.
The said star, identified as Gliese 887, is a small, dim red dwarf star. It is about half the mass of our sun. However, it is also the brightest red dwarf in the sky, given its proximity, and the one of the closest stars to the sun, albeit too far from our reach.
The astronomers, who were working on the Red Dots project, observed Gliese 887 via the European Southern Observatory in Chile.
They observed the said star for every night fot three months. The HARPS spectrograph (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher) spotted two planets around the star.
The HARPS has the capacity to spot planets via a technique, which astronomers dubbed the “Doppler wobble” or radial velocity method. In this method, the said wobble occurs when the star moves back and forth due to the gravitational pull of the planets orbiting the stars.
The data was combined with other data, among them included measurements of the star that went back 20 years.
The planets were dubbed Gliese 887b and Gliese 887c. 887b completes the orbit around the star every 9.3 Earth days. while the latter orbits the star at about 21.8 Earth days.
Based on the report, they also spotted a signal, which correspond to a planet, which takes 50 Earth days toorbit around the star.
The term super-Earths refers to planets that are larger than Earth but still smaller than planets like Uranus and Neptune.
Both super-Earths are close to the habitable zone of the star. The habitable zone is an area where terrestrial planets can support liquid water on their surfaces.
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