[aldo_14]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/18/neptune_trio_system/

Astronomers have revealed that a nearby solar system has a planet that could harbour liquid water. Techniques applied in the investigation have also made the search for more habitable planets easier.

The snappily-named HD 69830 system is in the constellation Puppis, around 41 light years away.

he Sun-like star has three Neptune-weight bodies orbiting it, ranging from 10 to 18 times the mass of Earth. The Switzerland-based researchers report in Nature that the two innermost planets are likely to be rocky rather than gas-dominated.

The system also has an asteroid belt, similar to our own, between the inner planets and a third body. The outer planet is the most interesting in terms of life.

Although it is surrounded by a massive gaseous envelope, simulations suggest it has a rock and ice core. It lies at the inner edge of the system's “habitable zone”, where liquid water could exist on the surface. Fabulously named Bern University co-author Willy Benz explained: “This alone makes this system already exceptional.”

The planets were found using the European Southern Observatory's 3.6m La Silla telescope high in the Chilean Andes.

The planets were given away by the Doppler effect. When an object is moving relative to astronomers on Earth, Doppler shift changes the wavelength of light coming from that object. The movement of stars with planets is altered by them in a way which is detectable in their Doppler signal.

“The planetary system clearly represents a Rosetta stone in our understanding of how planets form. No doubt it will help us better understand the huge diversity we have observed since the first extrasolar planet was found 11 years ago.”

The 180-odd extrasolar planets so far discovered by this method have tended towards the more massive end of the spectrum; bigger planets produce more easily detectable Doppler wobbles. The new trio are at the lower end of the scale, and the techniques refined in the course of the investigation should mean that more Earth-sized worlds will be found soon.

[Colonol Dekker]

Astronomers have revealed that a nearby solar system has a planet that could harbour liquid water.

LMAO, Liquid water!!  (I know water can exist in three states before i get any smart ass quips"

[Mefustae]

Interesting. An reasonably close, too.




...$20 says Vasudans.

[Descenter]

You can probably get better information here:  http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060517_netpune_planets.html

This site deals only with the space technology stuff

[an0n]

No, their world was all desert and ****. Especially after the Lucifer attacked.

And FYI - water is water.

Dihydrogen monoxide can exist in 3 states, but water is water, ice is ice and steam is steam.

[karajorma]

Water is the systematic name for H2O. The state of a molecule has no bearing whatsoever on that. If you want to claim otherwise you're going to have to come up with a name for supercritical water too.

[Colonol Dekker]

OK, dont get Pedantic people, I'm laughing at the comment "LIQUID WATER" nothing else nothing less.
Read the statement, not the aftertext.

[aldo_14]

OK, dont get Pedantic people, I'm laughing at the comment "LIQUID WATER" nothing else nothing less.
Read the statement, not the aftertext.

What, your statement?  The bit that no-one else finds in the slightest bit odd or amusing?

Alrighty, then.

[karajorma]

Now the big question is when are we sending a probe there

[Flipside]

Heh, even if the reserach on those plasma impulse-drive thingies is succesfull, no probe will get there after we are, most likely, long dead

[NGTM-1R]

We'd never be able to get a meaningful signal back over that kind of distance either...we have trouble making it as far as Pluto on the onboard communications side.

[ilya]

Astronomers have revealed that a nearby solar system has a planet that could harbour liquid water.

Nearby?

[karajorma]

On the galactic scale 41 LY away is practically on top of us.

[ilya]

True... too bad were still boring humanoid mortals.

[Mefustae]

True... too bad were still boring humanoid mortals.

Speak for yourself!

[WMCoolmon]

Astronomers have revealed that a nearby solar system has a planet that could harbour liquid water.

LMAO, Liquid water!!  (I know water can exist in three states before i get any smart ass quips"

I'd be far more impressed if they found a planet that harboured ice water.

[NGTM-1R]

Hellas Crater, Mars.

[an0n]

Deimos Base, Deimos.

[Gortef]

So that's where my bathwater wen't

[Janos]

So that's where my bathwater wen't

my bathwater is brown how about yours