There are two planets with Earth-like mass in the vicinity of a red dwarf star. The planets are located in the habitability zone.
Nature wants us to know that Earth-like planets are very common. Alejandro Surez Mascareo is the first author of the study accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
The planets are at a distance of less than 16 light years from the sun. Both of them have the same mass as the Earth and are in the habitability zone of their stars. GJ 1002b takes less than 10 days to complete an around the star, while GJ 1002c takes 21 days.
"GJ 1002 is a red dwarf star with a fraction of the sun's mass. It is a small star. Vera Mara Passegger is a co-author of the article and an IAC researcher.
The two planets, especially GJ 1002c, are excellent candidates for the characterization of their atmospheres because they are close to the star.
The presence of oxygen in the atmosphere of GJ 1002c could be studied with the help of the ANDES spectrograph. Both planets meet the characteristics needed for them to be objectives for the LIFE mission, which is currently in a study phase.
There was a collaboration between the two instruments. GJ 1002 was observed by a number of people over the course of a couple of years.
Ignasi Ribas, researcher at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) and director of theInstitut d'Est, says that the visible light from GJ 1002 is too faint to measure its variations in speed.
The ability to study GJ 1002 from the 3.5m telescope at Calar Alto observatory is due to the fact that CAR MENES has a sensitivity over a wide range of near IR wavelength which is superior to those of other telescopes.
The light gathering power of the VLT 8m telescopes allowed the measurement to be made with an accuracy of only 30 cm/s.
If the two groups had tackled the work on their own, they would have had a lot of problems. Surez Mascareo states that they have been able to get much further than they would have acted on their own.
There are two Earth-mass planets in the vicinity of a star. 10.1051/0004-6361 is a book.
Journal information: Astronomy & Astrophysics
All Rights Reserved © 2024
