A recent discovery by the Michael Gillon of the
University of Liege in Belgium on three earth-sized planets circling around a
dimmer and smaller star has increased the chances to get traces of life beyond Earth.
According to the astronaut, all three planets are ‘orbiting their parent star,
located in the constellation Aquarius.’
Aquarius is at a distance of 40 light years – a
distance that provides necessary amount of heat to be liquid water on the
surface of the planets, the report said on Monday, also published in the Nature journal.
However, water in a liquid form on the surface of
the three newly discovered planets has increased the chances of life, as
scientists believe the stage is ‘critical for fostering life.’ Scientists noted
that the discovery of the three planets is being marked the first time. The
planets, orbiting around a ‘common type of star’ is also known as an ultra-cool
dwarf, said the scientists. “If we want to find life elsewhere in the universe,
this is where we should start to look,” Gillon noted.
Reports are that the discovery was made using
Europe’s Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope, or TRAPPIST.
TRAPPIST is located at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. The astronauts at
Gillon’s team explained following the discovery that a telescope places a new
planet by the amount of light passes. However, the smaller the star is, it is
easier for a telescope to measure ‘transiting’
planets.
According to sources, the newly found planets are
about the size of Earth. But the host star is just 8 percent of the size of the
sun and less than a half a percent as bright. Astronomers have found more than
2,000 planets beyond our solar system and are ‘developing techniques to scan
planets’ atmospheres for gases related to biological activities.’
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