Astronomers Discover Ancient Star with Five Earth-Size Planets 117 Light Years Away

The system orbits a star thought to be 11.2 billion years old and although the planets are believed to orbit too close to their parent star to host life the astronomers think the discovery bodes well for the existence of ancient life in our Galaxy

“We thus show that Earth-size planets have formed throughout most of the universe’s 13.8-billion-year history, leaving open the possibility for the existence of ancient life in the galaxy,” the astronomers wrote in their paper, “An Ancient Extrasolar System with Five Sub-Earth-Size Planets,” published today by the Astrophysical Journal.

The paper describes Kepler-444, a star that’s 25 percent smaller than our Sun and is 117 light-years from Earth. The star’s five known planets have sizes that fall between Mercury and Venus. Those planets are so close to their star that they complete their orbits in fewer than 10 days. At that distance, they’re all much hotter than Mercury and aren’t habitable.

“This is one of the oldest systems in the galaxy,” Kawaler said of the Kepler discovery, noting that our Sun is 4.5 billion years old. “Kepler-444 came from the first generation of stars. This system tells us that planets were forming around stars nearly 7 billion years before our own Solar System.
astronomynow.com...

It seems that as weeks , months and years pass we move ever closer to finding our neighbors.

a reply to: SirKonstantin

Lol wtf does that have to do with the thread.
(Also try actually reading the agenda 21 document).
Back to the op.mgreat find gorty .
Only a matter of time until we find earth 2.0.

originally posted by: SirKonstantin
a reply to: gortex

Agenda 21 Brah.

What?

Any ways to OP, thanks for the post I always love reading up on our new discoveries in the final frontier.

Such a great find op! It's incredible to know that planets were forming from such an early era of our universe! Eventually, hopefully in my life time we will find another life form! Maybe not earth 2.0 as said above but just life other than here! I'm hoping when we eventually launch the probe to jupiter's moon Europa that we will find a micro organism underneath the ice! That would be incredible and then I garauntee NASA's budget would increase and space exploration/travel would explode with success! Kind of like computers, only with space travel. I'm hoping for it

Now all we need is light speed and 234 years worth of food and water to go and check it out.

originally posted by: OneManArmy
Now all we need is light speed and 234 years worth of food and water to go and check it out.

Wormholes, dude... wormholes.

It's amazing how quickly our views have changed from "the conditions to harbor life are so rare that it may not have happened anywhere else" to "hey, we found another planet today that could have harbored life."

It does almost seem like we're being slowly conditioned to the idea that life is abundant in the universe and it's only a matter of time until we find some.

a reply to: Answer

Without stretching yourself out one atom at a time is going to be a tough one.

originally posted by: FlySolo
a reply to: Answer

Without stretching yourself out one atom at a time is going to be a tough one.

I said wormholes, not black holes.

I was also making that statement with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek.

The quantum world holds the key to interstellar travel. Scientists just haven't made the breakthroughs.

a reply to: gortex

I always wonder at these new discoveries which take your breath away but I am stuck with the concept that our solar system and the way its made gives earth life. Could we exist with any other 'layout'. Our time is measured by the exact distance of our planet from our sun, (exactly right not too close to burn us or farther out and we would freeze). We couldn't exist without the work the moon does in moving our oceans to stop stagnation and other things necessary for our lifeforms, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune shield us pretty well from incoming disasters. We rotate on an axis that a few more degrees tip and we would all fly off etc. Life in our solar system is so precise to protect us fragile beings that surely we would need an identical solar system for a similar life form to exist and how likely, despite all the billions of stars is that?

originally posted by: Shiloh7
a reply to: gortex

I always wonder at these new discoveries which take your breath away but I am stuck with the concept that our solar system and the way its made gives earth life. Could we exist with any other 'layout'. Our time is measured by the exact distance of our planet from our sun, (exactly right not too close to burn us or farther out and we would freeze). We couldn't exist without the work the moon does in moving our oceans to stop stagnation and other things necessary for our lifeforms, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune shield us pretty well from incoming disasters. We rotate on an axis that a few more degrees tip and we would all fly off etc. Life in our solar system is so precise to protect us fragile beings that surely we would need an identical solar system for a similar life form to exist and how likely, despite all the billions of stars is that?

Everything you're saying is true of humans... because we evolved here.

Life adapts to the environment. Harsh environments also harbor life.

Life from another planet could be completely unrecognizable to us because it evolved in an environment we can not comprehend.

originally posted by: gortex
The system orbits a star thought to be 11.2 billion years old and although the planets are believed to orbit too close to their parent star to host life the astronomers think the discovery bodes well for the existence of ancient life in our Galaxy

“We thus show that Earth-size planets have formed throughout most of the universe’s 13.8-billion-year history, leaving open the possibility for the existence of ancient life in the galaxy,” the astronomers wrote in their paper, “An Ancient Extrasolar System with Five Sub-Earth-Size Planets,” published today by the Astrophysical Journal.

The paper describes Kepler-444, a star that’s 25 percent smaller than our Sun and is 117 light-years from Earth. The star’s five known planets have sizes that fall between Mercury and Venus. Those planets are so close to their star that they complete their orbits in fewer than 10 days. At that distance, they’re all much hotter than Mercury and aren’t habitable.

“This is one of the oldest systems in the galaxy,” Kawaler said of the Kepler discovery, noting that our Sun is 4.5 billion years old. “Kepler-444 came from the first generation of stars. This system tells us that planets were forming around stars nearly 7 billion years before our own Solar System.
astronomynow.com...

It seems that as weeks , months and years pass we move ever closer to finding our neighbors.

It should be noted that an even older planet orbits in the habitable zone of a much closer star, only 13 light years away and was discovered last July.

Name: Kapteyn b
Distance: 13 Light Years Away
Age: 12.8 Billion Years Old
Mass: 4.8 times Earth
Radius: between 1.2 and 2.1 the size of Earth



Orbit:


Phys.org: Introducing Earth's bigger, older brother: planet Kapteyn b (w/ Video)

We now know of a potentially habitable planet five times the size of Earth that has existed for more than twice as long.

A mere thirteen light years away, Kapteyn b is now the oldest known possibly rocky planet in a habitable zone. This 5-Earth-mass planet orbits swiftly: once every 48 days around its parent star. Kapteyn itself is no slouch: it flies across the sky faster than almost any other nearby star.

The whole system-Kapteyn's star with its two recently discovered planets b and c-is a long way off from where it first formed outside our galaxy.Discovered in late 1890's by the astronomer and cosmologist Jacob Cornelius Kapteyn, Kapteyn is an M1 red dwarf: a cool, small star—the most common type of star in our Galaxy. While our Sun is between five and six thousand degrees Kelvin at its surface temperature, Kapteyn's surface is more like 3500 degrees K.

In addition to being cooler, Kaptyn is also less massive: about 1/3rd the mass of the Sun. Also in contrast to our 4.6 billion year-young Sun, Kapteyn's star is likely quite a bit older. Kapteyn is thought to be a member of an ancient group that formed in the early days of the Universe. These primordial stars now live in a halo just beyond the inner boundary of our galaxy. The halo objects, some of which are up to 13 billion years old, have been yanked across the sky to their present positions by cataclysmic galactic merging events that began in the early days of the Milky way.

originally posted by: boymonkey74
a reply to: SirKonstantin

Lol wtf does that have to do with the thread.
(Also try actually reading the agenda 21 document).
Back to the op.mgreat find gorty

.
Only a matter of time until we find earth 2.0.

Yep.

originally posted by: Answer

originally posted by: OneManArmy
Now all we need is light speed and 234 years worth of food and water to go and check it out.

Wormholes, dude... wormholes.

Don't actually exist as far as we know. But it would be cool to find one ala Interstellar or make one ala Contact. There's nothing in physics that rules them out.

a reply to: SirKonstantin

Well maybe next time explAin yourself in the first post eh?.

originally posted by: Answer
It's amazing how quickly our views have changed from "the conditions to harbor life are so rare that it may not have happened anywhere else" to "hey, we found another planet today that could have harbored life."

The more we've learnt about our planet's ancient past and how quickly life got started here coupled with observations in astronomy that water, organic molecules, etc are common in space the more likely that other life exists. This was brought about due to three things: The discovery of extremophiles, life like water bears which can exist in extreme conditions. The growth in electronics and CCDs like the one in your digital camera, since the 1980s and the development of better telescope optics.

It does almost seem like we're being slowly conditioned to the idea that life is abundant in the universe and it's only a matter of time until we find some.

It's not conditioning. It's the trickling down to the average person on the street of what has been a common idea among scientists since the 90s.

originally posted by: Shiloh7
a reply to: gortex

I always wonder at these new discoveries which take your breath away but I am stuck with the concept that our solar system and the way its made gives earth life. Could we exist with any other 'layout'.

Yes.

Our time is measured by the exact distance of our planet from our sun, (exactly right not too close to burn us or farther out and we would freeze).

1 in 5 stars like our Sun have a planet like the Earth at this distance.

We couldn't exist without the work the moon does in moving our oceans to stop stagnation and other things necessary for our lifeforms

Not necessarily true anymore.

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune shield us pretty well from incoming disasters.

Other systems have planets like these. And in other systems with less cometary material they wouldn't be as necessary.

We rotate on an axis that a few more degrees tip and we would all fly off etc.

Huh? This is silly and untrue.

Life in our solar system is so precise to protect us fragile beings that surely we would need an identical solar system for a similar life form to exist and how likely, despite all the billions of stars is that?

Not really. There are plenty of other places (probably in the billions) which might be slightly different which would support our type of life and where we'd probably be quite comfortable.

Lol, the idea that we would fly off the planet if we were tilted at a different or higher angle is....just so damn CUTE
Those at the equator must be holding onto ropes as we speak!!!

Nice thread, it is surely a matter of time before conditions for life can be directly inferred, or even proven. The next step would be proof of life itself. Who knows, we may already have that though.