Earth-like planet exists in near star system Gliese 832, predict scientists

New Delhi : An Earth-like planet is apparently present in a nearby star system just 16 million light-years away, predict scientists including one from Indian origin.

Astrophysicists at the University of Texas have found that a place similar to our planet is likely to be existing in the star system Gliese 832. They say it is at a distance ranging from 0.25 to 2.0 astronomical unit (AU) from the star.

"According to our calculations, this hypothetical alien world would probably have a mass between 1 to 15 Earth's masses," said Suman Satyal, UTA physics researcher and lead author of the research published in The Astrophysical Journal.

What is Gliese 832?

Gliese 832 is a red dwarf that is half of the size of sun both in terms of mass and radius. The star is orbited by a giant Jupiter-like exoplanet designated Gliese 832b and by a super-Earth planet Gliese 832c.

How Earth-like planet came to light?

The team analysed the simulated data with an injected Earth-mass planet on this nearby planetary system hoping to find a stable orbital configuration for the planet that may be located in a vast space between the two known planets.

"We also used the integrated data from the time evolution of orbital parameters to generate the synthetic radial velocity curves of the known and the Earth-like planets in the system," said Satyal.

"We obtained several radial velocity curves for varying masses and distances indicating a possible new middle planet," he said.