More and more frequently we are hearing about new planets, new solar systems being discovered. The latest is one that very closely resembles our own solar system with scaled down versions of Jupiter and Saturn. It’s just likely that a (scaled down) version of earth might be found closer to the center too.
Unlike most planet discoveries that use the wobble method, this discovery was used with a method called microlensing where if, in the ceaseless shifting of the stars, two of them should become almost perfectly aligned with Earth, the gravity of the nearer star can bend and magnify the light from the more distant one, causing it to get much brighter for a few days. If the alignment is perfect, any big planets attending the nearer star will get into the act, adding their own little boosts to the more distant starlight.
Somewhat to the experimenters’ surprise, by clever manipulation they were able to dig out of the data not just the masses of the interloper star and its two planets, but also rough approximations of their orbits, confirming the similarity to our own system.
Read more about this discovery at the NY Times website.
I hope I get to live to see the day that a colonization effort gets made somewhere. Hopefully we’ll be able to pull a Noah’s Ark and save some of the species that we are eradicating as well! Wouldn’t it be nice?
