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Marie Curie project discovers that closest sun-like star may have a habitable planet

One of the closest and most similar stars to the sun was discovered by an international team of astronomers at Hertfordshire University, together with colleagues from Chile, the USA, and Australia.

They discovered that Tau Ceti is a star with the same spectral classification as our Sun – even visible to the naked eye – and may host one habitable planet in its system. This system hosts five planets that have masses between two or six times more than our Earth.

The research was partially funded by a Marie Curie ROPACS Initial Training Network (ITN) under the EU Seventh Framework Programme. Furthermore, the team has found a new method to show that Tau Ceti is not even a lone star but also a planetary system. There might be also the possibility of a new study which would observe the atmosphere of these planets in the future.

More information: http://www.astrobiology.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=39583

ROPACS project: http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/rcn/89011_en.html

 

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