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Post Info TOPIC: Tau Ceti
Blobrana


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Closest Earth-like planet may be 13 light years away

Sifting through thousands of stars in Kepler's catalogue, Dressing found 95 possible planets orbiting red dwarfs. Of these, three are Earth-sized candidates in the habitable zone - the region around a star where liquid water can exist. Statistically, that means 6 per cent of all red dwarfs in our galaxy should have rocky planets in the habitable zone, Dressing says.
Most of the stars nearest to us are red dwarfs, including the closest, Proxima Centauri. Based on the distribution of red dwarfs in the Milky Way, Dressing estimates that a potentially habitable planet is only 13 light years away. 
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Blobrana


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Tau Ceti's planets nearest around single, Sun-like star

The nearest single Sun-like star to the Earth hosts five planets - one of which is in the "habitable zone" where liquid water can exist, astronomers say.
Tau Ceti's planetary quintet - reported in an online paper that will appear in Astronomy and Astrophysics - was found in existing planet-hunting data.
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Blobrana


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Found: One Planet Orbiting Sun-like Star. Only Twelve Light Years Away. May Be Habitable.

An international team of astronomers using the W. M. Keck Observatory and other telescopes, has discovered that Tau Ceti, one of the closest and most Sun-like stars, may host five planets - with one in the elusive 'Goldilocks Zone'.
At a distance of twelve light years and visible with the naked eye in the December evening sky, Tau Ceti is the closest single star that has the same spectral classification as our Sun. Its five planets are estimated to have masses between two and six times the mass of the Earth - making it the lowest-mass planetary system yet detected. One of the planets lies in the star's habitable zone - the so-called Goldilocks Zone with it's 'just right' temperatures for supporting liquid water - and has a mass around five times that of Earth, making it the smallest planet found to be orbiting in the habitable zone of any Sun-like star.
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