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Earthlike Exoplanets Are All Around Us
Artist’s impression of a rocky planet orbiting a red dwarf. Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA)
We may literally be surrounded by potentially habitable exoplanets, according to new research by a team from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Using data gathered by NASA’s exoplanet-hunting Kepler spacecraft, the CfA researchers discovered that many red dwarf stars harbor planets, and some of those planets are rocky, Earth-sized worlds. Considering that red dwarfs, albeit optically dim, are the most abundant type of stars in our galaxy, this means that even a small percentage of them being host to Earthlike exoplanets puts the total number of potentially habitable worlds very high — and some of them could be right next door.
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Read the rest of Earthlike Exoplanets Are All Around Us (415 words)
© Jason Major for Universe Today, 2013. |
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Post tags: CfA, Earthlike world, exoplanets, Kepler, red dwarf, stars
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2013-02-06 10:46:28
Source: http://www.universetoday.com/99784/earthlike-exoplanets-are-all-around-us/
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