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Earth-Sized Planets Could Be Nearby

Submit on Tuesday, July 25th, 2006 01:53

Artist illustration of an extrasolar planet. Image credit: NASA/JPLClick to enlarge
Nearly all of the extrasolar planets discovered so far have been huge, Jupiter-sized and above. The question is: could smaller, Earth-sized planets last in the same star systems? Researchers created a simulation where tiny planets were put into the same system as larger planets to see if they could gather enough material to become as large as the Earth. They found that one nearby system – 55 Cancri – could have formed terrestrial planets, with substantial water in the habitable zone.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 25th, 2006 at 1:53 am and is filed under Extrasolar Planets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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