A team of scientists led by the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom) has discovered a solar system with five planets very similar in size to that of Earth, which, according to astroeismological calculations, dates back to the beginning of the galaxy. It is the oldest known solar system in the Milky Way.
The discovery of this planetary system with a star similar to the Sun accompanied by five planets of a medium size between Mercury and Venus, has been possible thanks – again – to NASA’s Kepler mission and an astroeismology technique that is based on listening the natural resonances of a star caused by sound trapped within it; These small oscillations cause very subtle changes in its brightness but allow us to ask for its diameter, mass and age. The planets, for their part, were detected by the darkening they cause in the brightness of their star when they pass in front of it, according to The Astrophysical Journal magazine.
The five planets orbit (in less than ten days) around Kepler 444, a star very similar to the Sun, 117 light years away and which formed 11.2 billion years ago , at a time when the Universe was barely 20 % of your current age. That is, this planetary system is more than twice as old as our own solar system.
“ The implications of this discovery are far-reaching . We now know that Earth-size planets have formed during most of the 13.8 billion years in the history of the Universe, which could give a more than enough margin for the existence of very ancient life in the galaxy ”, he explains Tiago Campante, study leader.
