Four Earth-size planets orbiting the closest sun-like star, Tau Ceti, which is approximately 12 light years away and visible to the naked eye, have been identified thanks to a new study carried out. by an international group of astronomers.
These planets have masses as low as 1.7 the mass of Earth, making them the smallest planets ever recorded around sun-like stars .
Super Earth
Two of the planets located are ‘Super-earths’ located in the habitable zone of the star, as explained by the professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the Central Santa Cruz University and co-author of the study Steven Vogt , which means that they could have liquid water on the surface:
We are now crossing a threshold where, through very sophisticated modeling of large combined data sets from multiple independent observers, we can unravel the noise due to stellar surface activity from the tiny signals generated by the gravitational tugs of the planets in Earth orbit.
Sun-like stars are considered to be the best targets in the investigation of habitable Earth-like planets due to their similarity to the sun.