Solar System Has a Twin?!

Astronomers working at the European Southern Observatory or ESO, have discovered a planetary system that is 127 light years away and contains at least five planets. These planets orbit the star HD 10180 at distances that follow a regular pattern much like our own solar system. The astronomers used a ESO's 306 metre telescope for a six year long study of the HD 10180. They detected the tiny back and forth motions of the star caused from the complex gravitational attractions from five or more planets. An interesting thing they found is that the five strongest signals correspond to planets with Neptune like masses between 13 and 25 Earth masses. Also the planets are located between 0.06 and 1.4 times the Earth-Sun distance from their central star. The astronomers also found that a year on the planet would last only 1.18 Earth days. The article found many interesting things about this other solar system.

The article relates to science or biology because it is about our solar system. It is astronomy and it discusses the new findings that there are about space. Astronomy is very important because it is our solar system where Earth, the world, is located and is able to keep working and give us life. Astronomy is a very important part of science.


The article is important because any new news about the solar system is helpful since supposedly the world is going to end. There are a lot of mysteries in outer space that we do not know about. The more things that astronomers find about space the better. All these new findings are helping to uncover more new things than we already now. There are other galaxies and solar systems out there so it is good for astronomers to study them and keep investigating more and more.



http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20100724190914data_trunc_sys.shtml