New Observation of Nearby Star System Confirms Similarity to Ours

A relatively nearby planetary system is structured remarkably like what ours probably looked like when it was young, the U.S. space agency NASA confirms.

This artist's diagram compares the Epsilon Eridani system to our own solar system. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The system around the star Epsilon Eridani, or eps Eri, is just 10.5 light-years away and astronomers say it provides an excellent example of how planets form around stars in systems like ours.

Previous studies of the system using the Spitzer Space Telescope led to two theories about how the system formed. One suggested a wide debris disk made up of gas, dust and small rocky and icy bodies. Another suggested several thin debris disks similar to our system, which has an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and the Kuiper Belt of mostly icy objects beyond the dwarf planet Pluto.

Using the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, astronomers found eps Eri has two narrow bands like our system. Furthermore, they detected a Jupiter-sized planet roughly the same distance from its star as Jupiter is from the sun.

“It really is impressive how eps Eri, a much younger version of our solar system, is put together like ours,” said Kate Su of the University of Arizona who led the study.

SOFIA, which is a larger telescope than Spitzer, is mounted on a Boeing 747. It previously found oxygen in Mars’ atmosphere, offered close-up looks at Jupiter and has documented the formation of new stars.

If the name eps Eri sounds familiar, you may have already heard of it as the setting for the science fiction television series Babylon 5.

The description of eps Eri was published in the Astronomical Journal on April 25, 2017. (VOA)

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Scientists discover fossil of dinosaur ancestor with surprising croc-like appearance

Scientists have long wondered what the earliest dinosaur relatives looked like. Most assumed they would resemble miniature dinosaurs, about the size of chickens, and walk on two legs.

Study indicates as great white shark disappears, living fossil moves in

When the great white shark disappeared from a specific area off the coast of South Africa, a Jurassic-era predator called the sevengill shark moved in.

Final Descent Image from Rosetta Spacecraft

A new image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft shortly before its controlled impact into the comet's surface on Sept. 30, 2016.

Dawn Maps Ceres Craters Where Ice Can Accumulate

Scientists with NASA's Dawn mission have identified permanently shadowed regions on the dwarf planet Ceres. Most of these areas likely have been cold enough to trap water ice for a billion years, suggesting that ice deposits could exist there now.

Dawn Finds Possible Ancient Ocean Remnants at Ceres

The Dawn team found that Ceres' crust is a mixture of ice, salts and hydrated materials that were subjected to past and possibly recent geologic activity, and that this crust represents most of that ancient ocean.

Cooking up Alien Atmospheres on Earth

Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, are cooking up an alien atmosphere right here on Earth.