One of the closest stars to our own, Tau Ceti, appears to have five planets, including one that's in the so-called habitable zone and could be suitable for life. Not only is Tau Ceti a near neighbor, at 12 light years away, it has the same spectral classification as our sun. Previously, the nearest planet believed to be capable of supporting life - found just last month - was 42 light years away. The new-found planets are estimated to have masses between two and six times the mass of the Earth, making this the lowest-mass planetary system yet detected. The planet that lies in its habitable zone has a mass around five times that of Earth, making it the smallest planet found in the habitable zone of any sun-like star. "This discovery is in keeping with our emerging view that virtually every star has planets, and that the galaxy must have many such potentially habitable Earth-sized planets," says Steve Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz. "We are now beginning to understand that nature seems to overwhelmingly prefer systems that have multiple planets with orbits of less than 100 days. This is quite unlike our own solar system, where there is nothing with an orbit inside that of Mercury. So our solar system is, in some sense, a bit of a freak and not the most typical kind of system that Nature cooks up." Read more at http://www.tgdaily.com/space-featur...-just-12-light-years-away#a6hypt3AcDzjQYB4.99
The title is misleading and the claims that there are found planets that are capable of supporting life is simply false. They aren't claiming to have found water, oxygen rich atmosphere, or existing life.
