Planets of nearby star could be habitable

PARIS - Agence France-Presse

Tau Ceti, one of our closest stars, is a good candidate to host an Earth-like planet, astronomers reported yesterday.

Located a relatively close 12 light years away, the Sun-like star has five planets that orbit it in a balmy zone which gives the best chance for nurturing life, they said.

One of the planets has a mass about five times that of the Earth, making it the smallest planet found so far in this vital zone, they said. Around 800 exoplanets, worlds orbiting stars other than our own, have been spotted since 1995. But none is a home from home. These planets are either uninhabitable gas giants or are big rocky worlds that swing so close to their star that they are literally roasted.

The quest is to find a rocky planet that is not only close to the mass of Earth but is also located in the so-called “Goldilocks zone.” This is an orbital distance from the star where temperature is neither too hot nor too cold, but just right to sustain liquid water, which is essential for life as we know it.