SCIENCE AND EDUCATION
RICH EXOPLANET SYSTEM DISCOVERED
Baku, August 25 (AZERTAC). Astronomers have discovered a planetary system containing at least five planets that orbit a star called HD 10180, which is much like our own Sun, according to the BBC.
The star is 127 light years away, in the southern constellation of Hydrus.
The researchers used the European Southern Observatory (Eso) to monitor light emitted from the system and identify and characterize the planets.
They say this is the "richest" system of exoplanets - planets outside our own Solar System - ever found.
Christophe Lovis from Geneva University`s observatory in Switzerland was lead researcher on the study. He said that his team had probably found "the system with the most planets yet discovered".
"This also highlights the fact that we are now entering a new era in exoplanet research - the study of complex planetary systems and not just of individual planets," he said.
The research has been submitted for publication to the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Eso`s High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (or Harps) instrument was responsible for the discovery.
Harps measures the wobble of a star; this gives a measure of how much it is being tugged on by an orbiting planet.
The researchers said the system around HD 10180 as unique in several respects.
It has at least five "Neptune-like planets" lying within a distance equivalent to the orbit of Mars, making it more populated than our own Solar System in its inner region. And all the planets seem to have almost circular orbits.
