Discovered two planets that closely resemble the earth

In the process of searching for planet-like planets, European astronomers discovered two giant planets that have many similarities to the homes of humanity.

Planet Gliese 581 e (lower left corner) and planet Gliese 581 d (small, blue) revolve around a star.Photo: AP.

The information was given at a press conference at the University of Hertfordshire (England) yesterday. 'Our goal is to find earth-like rocky planets that have ideal conditions to nourish life. We found two such places, ' said Michel Mayor, an astrophysicist from the University of Geneva (Switzerland).

Mayor said the two planets are all in the constellation Libra and move around a star. One of the two planets is called Gliese 581 e, about 1.9 times the size of the earth. Gliese 581 e is pretty close to a star. That position makes it too hot for living, but quite close to the earth (20.5 light-years or 192,000 billion km).

'This means that we have achieved an important achievement in our efforts to find a planet-like planet,' Mayor said. Although Gliese 581 e is too hot for life, it shows that the universe can 'produce' so many planets. The Milky Way may also be the refuge of tens of billions of planets the size of Gliese 581 e.

The second planet, Gliese 581 d, was discovered in 2007, but recently researchers have found that its orbit is within the "ability to nurture life" around a star-like star. Sun and allow water to exist on the surface in liquid form.

Stephane Udry, a member of the search team, commented that Gliese 581 d is quite large and may contain a large and deep ocean. 'It is likely that it will be the first planet to have water we know of,' Udry said.

International astronomers have found nearly 350 extrasolar planets, but no planet has the ability to nourish life. Most of them are too close or too far from their own stars, making them too hot or too cold. Some planets are made up of toxic gases. Meanwhile, small planets like the earth are not easy targets to detect.