HONG KONG: NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has discovered a new solar system roughly 117 light-years from Earth that plays host to five Earth-sized planets orbiting a star, Kepler-444, that’s more than twice as old as the Sun.
The five rocky planets circling Kepler-444, which is 11.2 billion years old, are too close to the star to fall within the “Goldilocks zone” around the star which would be warm enough, but not too warm, to support the existence of liquid water and the possibility of life.
Astronomers have indicated that the solar system may assist scientists in pinpointing when Earth-like planets first began to form and it might also have what a Huffington Post report calls “important implication for the possibility of alien life.
” The report quotes a research fellow at the University of Birmingham who helped discover the new solar system, Dr. Tiago Campante, as having said that there are “far-reaching implications” for this recent discovery that “could provide scope for the existence of ancient life in the Galaxy.”
