Scientists have discovered a "habitable" planet orbiting the sun visible to the naked eye from Earth.
The "habitable zone" is an orbital space that is neither too cold nor too hot
This "inhabitable" planet is 12 light-years away from us and is two to six times larger than Earth. Scientists think this planet orbits Tau Ceti, a star identical to our Sun.
The planet is only one of 5 orbiting Tau Ceti and is located within the star's "habitable zone" and is estimated to have a mass five times that of Earth.
The "habitable zone" represents an orbital space that is neither too cold nor too warm - potentially allowing liquid to exist on the surface and therefore life.
Nearest cosmic neighbors
Most of the planets discovered so far had extremely large masses, and the Tau Ceti planetary family is among the solar systems with the lowest mass detected so far.
"This finding is consistent with our view that virtually every star has planets."
"Tau Ceti is one of our closest cosmic neighbors and is so bright that in the near future we will be able to study the atmospheres of these planets," said Dr James Jenkins from the University of Hertfordshire.
Scientists have so far discovered over 800 planets orbiting stars other than our Sun since 1990.
"This finding agrees with our view that virtually every star has planets, and that the galaxy must contain numerous Earth-like planets. They are found everywhere, and some are our closest neighbors," says Professor Steve Watt from the University of California and one of the scientists of the team that discovered the new planet.
The details of this discovery were published in the journal "Astronomy and Astrophysics".
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