Australian scientists have discovered the closest planet to the land that could be potentially habitable, reported academic sources.
The planet Wolf 1061c is one of three that were discovered by a team from the University of New South Wales (UNSW, acronym) outside the Solar system about 14 light-years away from Earth.
“It’s fascinating to see the immensity and think that a star so close to us, a close neighbor could host a habitable planet,” he said a statement Duncan Wright, who led the research.
The three planets orbiting the “Wolf 1061″ in orbits of 5, 18 and 67 days dwarf, have masses that exceed, respectively, 1.4, 4.3 and 5.2 times that of Earth.
The largest planet is outside the habitable zone, also called “Goldilocks”, which refers to a region not is “neither too hot nor too cold” and that meets the conditions necessary for life, while the smallest is too close to the star it orbits to be habitable.
But “the medium planet, Wolf 1061c, is located in the ‘Goldilocks’, where there could be liquid and even life water, “said Wright.
The discovery, to be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, leaned on observations of “Wolf 1061″ made with the European Southern Observatory telescope at La Silla (Chile).
The small rocky planets like Earth seem to abound in the galaxy, but most seem to hundreds or thousands of light years away, except Gliesse 667Cc, which is 22 orbit around its star takes light years and 28 days. EFE
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