LONDON: Astronomers have discovered a planetary system just 21 light years away from us that packs three super-Earths and a gas giant out of which at least one super-Earth is said to be a transiting planet.
Discovered using the HARPS-N, which is installed at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo on the La Palma island, the exceptional planetary system is located around the star HD219134. The star is a 5th magnitude K dwarf that is slightly colder and less massive than our Sun; however, it is bright enough that it can be spotted with a naked eye from dark skies, next to one leg of the W-shape Cassiopeia constellation, all year round in our boreal hemisphere.
Astronomers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and members of the NCCR PlanetS say that the cortege of planets around HD219134 is composed of three mostly rocky super-Earths and an outer giant planet, a configuration reminiscent of our own Solar System.
Ati Motalebi, astronomer at UNIGE and first author of the paper said that as soon as the first HARPS-N radial-velocity measurements were out and indicated the presence of a 3-day planet around HD219134, they requested NASA for Spitzer space telescope time.
Astronomers wanted to check for presence of a potential transit of the planet in front of the star so as to measure the size of the planet.
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