Is this the dawning of the age of Aquarius?
Warning: not elder law related!
From the Christian Science Monitor:
In what researchers are calling a milestone, a team of US astronomers has detected what may be the most Earth-like planet yet orbiting a dwarf star 15 light-years away.
Over the past decade, astronomers have found more than 100 planets orbiting nearby stars. But the vast majority have been gas giants several times more massive than Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet. Last year, astronomers reported finding two “exoplanets” that were closer in mass to Jupiter’s smaller neighbor, Neptune. The ultimate goal is to find Earth-sized rocky planets, especially at distances from their “suns” that would allow water to exist in liquid form – necessary for organic life to develop.
While the new planet doesn’t fit this ultimate category, it represents a breakthrough in astronomers’ ability to detect ever-smaller planets from ground-based observatories.
“This planet answers an ancient question,” said team leader Geoffrey Marcy, professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, at a briefing on the results Monday. “Over 2,000 years ago, the Greek philosophers Aristotle and Epicurus argued about whether there were other Earth-like planets. Now, for the first time, we have evidence for a rocky planet around a normal star.”
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