Can there be life on the Cancer constellation?

The latest discovery by Marcy has just been announced last week: it is the fifth planet orbiting a star called 55 Cancri (belonging to the Constellation constellation), located 41 light-years from Earth.

For the past 20 years, the team of Berkeley Institute astronomer Geoff Marcy is one of the world's leading planet discovery groups. Of the 260 planets discovered in other solar systems, Marcy's group has found more than 150 planets.

Tuoi Tre translated G.Marcy's answer on the Los Angeles Times 16-11.

* Please describe your new findings?

- This (55 Cancri) is one of the stars closest to our Sun. It has the same weight, the same temperature and the same age as the Sun. Simply put, the most interesting thing is that we found the five main planets orbiting it. The planets orbiting 55 Cancri have different vibrational weights, from the smallest (smaller than Earth at least 10 times) to the largest (four times larger than Jupiter).

* Is there any planet with life on it?

"If there is a Moon around this fifth planet, it will have a rock surface, so water can gather in the lake and the ocean. Water, of course, is key to life. The discovery of the five-element system This first crystal made me very happy, knowing that our solar system and its planetary family are not rare in this universe. "

(Geoff Marcy)

- The latest, marked No. 5 planet, has an orbit of about 117 million km from 55 Cancri, which is 32 million kilometers closer than the distance between the Earth and the Sun. As a result, the new planet may have a year of about 260 days, and more importantly, in the position of astronomers called the area of ​​life.

Nearly 55 Cancri, this new planet may have warmed up - like our face being warmed up in a campfire warmth, this warm temperature will cause water (if any) to turn into liquid. However, it must be said that the new planet seems to form primarily from hydrogen and helium gas. Its weight is about 55 times the weight of Earth. Such a large planet with a rock core and a flammable atmosphere would hardly support a life as we know it.

* What is the charm of a planet like Earth?

- Finding the first earth is the dream of Aristotle (Greek ancient philosopher). Even in the religious realm, people have been wondering whether Earth alone is here? Is the Earth at the center of creativity? . The Vatican will be very interested. No kidding. I received two phone calls from them.

* What are the prospects for finding future planets?

- There are three interesting missions that NASA is currently planning and enhancing search. The first mission is called Kepler. It is a space telescope, which can measure the smallest blurring (created by a horizontal plane before a host star), up to 1 / 100,000, allowing us to detect the Similar to Earth. The goal is to take a big picture of the sky around the Swans, observing 150,000 stars continuously for four years . It is expected to start in 2009.

The planets orbiting the star named 55 Cancri (Photo: Science.psu.edu)

* What other tasks are there?

- Next, NASA is promoting the mission of measuring cosmic interference (SIM) at the Jet Laboratory in Southern California. SIM work is to find planets similar to Earth in areas where life can be most likely to be near stars near Earth. SIM will find Earth's twin brother within a few light years near us.

* And the third mission?

- Is a planetary terrestrial planet finder (TPF). I ranked it third because of technological reasons that are far from being reached. We hope to start it in 2016. What is special about TPF is that it will take the first photos of similar planets like Earth. Try looking at our own solar system. Which planet is blue? Earth. So if you find another star with a translucent blue dot around a golden star, the blue (that) and the chemical analysis of the planet can give us a strong assumption of life.

* If we find "twin brothers" with Earth, what will we do?

- I know exactly what we will do: The Berkeley Institute together with SETI (Institute for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is building a radio telescope north of Lassen Mountain (Hat Creek) to detect signals TV and radio from an advanced technology civilization.

* If we find radio waves, what will we do?

- There has been a draft of this. Step A will be widely and widely available throughout the world so people can know and monitor our work. The next step will be . a conference where all the nations will send representatives to discuss which message we will respond to. Remember that conversation will not be answered vividly, because a star 50 light years away from us means the message takes 50 years to come to them and 50 years to answer them!

TRAN DUC THANH translation