The European astronomers finally ended up with discovering a low mass extra solar planet, which was named as HD 85512b. It is discovered using the HARPS ( High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher), at the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) location in La Silla, Chile. This is in the constellation Vela and is found to orbit around a star at 36 million light years away from the Earth. This planet is about 3.6 times in mass to that of the Earth, completing it's orbit around it's star within 60 days. The scientists are using a method of reflectivity to find out the reflection of the energy by the surface of the planet and more the reflection would simply imply more possibility of the planet having cloudy atmosphere. Lisa Kaltenegger, an astronomer with Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg,
Germany says, "If we are really, really lucky, this planet could be a habitat comparable to Earth. This is a very exciting planet because if it is rocky, it will be the second confirmed planet that is within the habitable zone of its star,". Best noticeable thing out of all is that the planet is expected to have a temperatures around 30 to 50 degrees centigrade, which is an awesome thing if you can really understand !! Future studies are promised to test the nature of the planet; rocky or gaseous or anything else and as usually, as it comes to these Extra solar planets, am quite curious about the further results. Well, I seriously wish it has a rocky surface !!
Ref: ib times
September 14, 2011.
Pranu :-)
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