Astronomers Discover Two New Planets Orbiting Nearby Star that May Support Life

Astronomers may have found two planets that could support life. They've spotted two new planets orbiting a very old star near to our sun, and one of them orbits just at the right distance to allow liquid water to exist on its surface--a key ingredient to support life.

The star in question is called Kapteyn's Star, which is the second fastest-moving star in the sky. It was first discovered in the 19^th century and belongs to the Galactic halo, which is an extended group of stars orbiting our galaxy on very elliptical orbits. About the third the mass of our own sun, this red dwarf star can be seen with a telescope. And now, astronomers have spotted planets orbiting this star.

"We were surprised to find planets orbiting Kapteyn's star," said Guillem Anglada-Escude, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Previous data showed some irregular motion so we were looking for very short period planets when the new signals showed up loud and clear."

The first planet is called Kapteyn b, and this is the one that may support water. It possesses five times the mass of Earth and orbits its parent star every 48 days. The second planet is called Kapteyn c and is a more massive super-Earth. It orbits its star once every 121 days and may be too cold to support liquid water.

"Finding a stable planetary system with a potentially habitable planet orbiting one of the very nearest stars in the sky is mind blowing," said Pamela Arriagada, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This is one more piece of evidence that nearly all stars have planets, and that potentially habitable planets in our galaxy are as common as grains of sand on a beach."

The findings reveal a little bit more about this star and its planets. That said, scientists still don't know a lot about the planets in question. Yet future research may shed more like on Kapetyn and its planets, which could definitively tell astronomers whether or not these planets could indeed support life.

The findings are published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.