A team of astronomers has discovered 50 new exoplanets (planets that do not revolve around the Sun), including 16 Earth-like planets. One of them orbits in the limits of the habitable zone of its star, which could contain water in a liquid state . This finding has been possible thanks to HARPS, the planet search system of the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere.
One of the conclusions of this research, which has studied the properties of all the planets analyzed so far by HARPS, is that about 40 percent of Sun-like stars have at least one planet lighter than Saturn . In addition, astronomers have also found that most exoplanets of mass equal to or less than Neptune appear to be part of systems with multiple planets.
After two years of work, the team of researchers has discovered five new planets with masses less than five times the size of the Earth. These will be targeted for signs of life by detecting physical signs, such as evidence of oxygen. One of these discovered planets, called HD 85512 b , has a mass of only 3.6 times that of Earth and is in an area that would allow the presence of liquid water if conditions were appropriate.
Lisa Kaltenegger, an exoplanet habitability expert at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany and Harvard University, has stated that it is the “lowest mass planet confirmed and discovered with the radial velocity method that is potentially in the habitable zone from its star and the second low-mass planet discovered by HARPS inside the habitable zone. ” The results of this search demonstrate the possibility of discovering other potentially habitable planets and attest to the increased precision of the surveys carried out by this search system: planets with less than twice the Earth’s mass can be detected.
