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An Earth-mass planet orbiting ? Centauri B.

Authors :
Dumusque, Xavier
Pepe, Francesco
Lovis, Christophe
Ségransan, Damien
Sahlmann, Johannes
Benz, Willy
Bouchy, François
Mayor, Michel
Queloz, Didier
Santos, Nuno
Udry, Stéphane
Source :
Nature; 11/8/2012, Vol. 491 Issue 7423, p207-211, 5p, 1 Chart, 5 Graphs
Publication Year :
2012

Abstract

Exoplanets down to the size of Earth have been found, but not in the habitable zone-that is, at a distance from the parent star at which water, if present, would be liquid. There are planets in the habitable zone of stars cooler than our Sun, but for reasons such as tidal locking and strong stellar activity, they are unlikely to harbour water-carbon life as we know it. The detection of a habitable Earth-mass planet orbiting a star similar to our Sun is extremely difficult, because such a signal is overwhelmed by stellar perturbations. Here we report the detection of an Earth-mass planet orbiting our neighbour star ? Centauri B, a member of the closest stellar system to the Sun. The planet has an orbital period of 3.236 days and is about 0.04 astronomical units from the star (one astronomical unit is the Earth-Sun distance). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
00280836
Volume :
491
Issue :
7423
Database :
Complementary Index
Journal :
Nature
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
83230453
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11572