Planets around close by star are intriguing prospects for extraterrestrial life

Planets around local star are intriguing applicants foUp to three planets - potentially rocky like Earth - have been spotted around a good star located relatively near our solar program - a planetary system offering astronomers intriguing alternatives in the search for signs of extraterrestrial lifestyle.

The planets orbit Gliese 887, a so-called red dwarf star half the sun's mass located 11 light years from Earth - right inside our backyard in cosmic terms, researchers said on Friday. A light year is the distance light travels in a yr, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).

Only 12 various other stars are nearer to our solar system.

Two planets have already been definitively identified, one orbiting Gliese 887 every nine days and the various other every 21 days. One of these two is situated just inside what's called the habitable zone, or Goldilocks area, around the star - certainly not too hot rather than too cold, perhaps in a position to maintain liquid normal water on the surface and harbor life.

A third potential world orbiting every 50 times is located in the habitable zone, but nonetheless needs further confirmation.

"They happen to be 'super-Earth' planets, which signifies that they certainly are a few situations the mass of the planet earth and are expected to have a good core just like the Earth, instead of the big gas giants such as for example Jupiter and Saturn," said astronomer Sandra Jeffers of the University of Göttingen in Germany, business lead author of the study published this week found in the journal Science.

"The newly detected planets are the best possibilities of all of the known planets in close proximity to sunlight to see if indeed they have atmospheres and to research these atmospheres at length," Jeffers added, to understand whether their circumstances are "amenable forever."

This planetary system is a key target for study using NASA's next-generation James Webb Space Telescope, due for a 2021 launch, Jeffers said.

Red dwarf stars happen to be relatively tiny and cool. Gliese 887 is exceptionally inactive in conditions of energetic outbursts and dark starspots, meaning it may be hospitable to life on the planets in its orbit. r extraterrestrial life