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Astronomers say they've found the first planet beyond our solar system that could have the right size and setting to sustain life as we know it, only 20 light-years from Earth. "My own personal feeling is that the chances of life on this planet are 100 percent," Steven Vogt, an astrophysicist at the University of California at Santa Cruz, told reporters today. "I have almost no doubt about it."
The discovery, published online in The Astrophysical Journal, is the result of 11 years of observations at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Astronomers participating in the Lick-Carnegie Exoplanet Survey detected the planet by tracking the faint gravitational wobbles it produced in its parent star. Now they say there may well be many more planets out there like this one.
"The fact that we were able to detect this planet so quickly and so nearby tells us that planets like this must be really common," Vogt said in a news release.
One of Vogt's co-authors, Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution, reminded reporters during a teleconference today that the first exoplanet orbiting a normal star was detected 15 years ago. Since then, almost 500 other alien planets have been found. "We're at exactly that threshold now with finding habitable planets," Butler said.
The discovery, published online in The Astrophysical Journal, is the result of 11 years of observations at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Astronomers participating in the Lick-Carnegie Exoplanet Survey detected the planet by tracking the faint gravitational wobbles it produced in its parent star. Now they say there may well be many more planets out there like this one.
"The fact that we were able to detect this planet so quickly and so nearby tells us that planets like this must be really common," Vogt said in a news release.
One of Vogt's co-authors, Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution, reminded reporters during a teleconference today that the first exoplanet orbiting a normal star was detected 15 years ago. Since then, almost 500 other alien planets have been found. "We're at exactly that threshold now with finding habitable planets," Butler said.
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