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supernova

By supernova
in The Astro Lounge

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supernova

supernova

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'Twin' solar system 'like ours'

Undiscovered planets may lie hidden in a "twin" solar system 10.5 light years from the Earth, scientists believe.

Epsilon Eridani looks very like a much younger version of our own star system, say astronomers in the latest edition of the Astrophyiscal Journal.

It possesses a rocky asteroid belt identical to the one that lies between Mars and Jupiter, and an outer ring of icy material similar to the Kuiper Belt at the edge of our Solar System. In addition it has a second outer belt of asteroids containing 20 times more space rock than the inner one.

Astronomers think unseen planets must have confined and shaped the three rings of material surrounding Epsilon Eridani. Three planets with masses between those of Neptune and Jupiter would neatly explain the observations.

One candidate planet near the innermost asteroid belt has already been detected from the "wobble" effect of its gravity on the star. A second planet is thought to lurk near the second asteroid belt and a third near the inner edge of Epsilon Eridani's "Kuiper Belt".

Epsilon Eridani, which is visible to the naked eye, is slightly smaller and cooler than the Sun but much younger. Whereas the Sun formed around 4.57 billion years ago, Epsilon Eridani is only around 850 million years old. The star's asteroid belts were found using the Spitzer space telescope.

Dr Massimo Marengo, from the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, one of the US astronomers who made the discovery, said: "Studying Epsilon Eridani is like having a time machine to look at our solar system when it was young."

Co-author Dr Dana Backman, from the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) Institute, said: "This system probably looks a lot like ours did when life first took root on Earth."

Although Epsilon Eridani's "Kuiper Belt" is about 100 times more packed with icy debris than our own, scientists think that when our solar system was 850 million years old, its Kuiper Belt must have looked very similar.

Since then, much of the material has been swept out of the Solar System or sent plunging into the inner planets in an event known as the Late Heavy Bombardment. The Moon's heavily cratered surface is the result of this violent episode in the Solar System's history. Epsilon Eridani's star system might undergo a similar episode of dramatic upheaval in the future, the astronomers believe.

Bernie.

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supernova

supernova

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There must be something out there even if it is only Marvin :)

Hehehehe, I do believe and my wife claims to have seen ' something (read UFO)' when out one night with her Mother and Sister many years ago.

Gary

I have seen one, well three, but I still dont believe in them.
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gary1968

gary1968

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There must be something out there even if it is only Marvin :)

Hehehehe, I do believe and my wife claims to have seen ' something (read UFO)' when out one night with her Mother and Sister many years ago.

Gary

I have seen one, well three, but I still dont believe in them.

Oh well, hopefully time will tell Bernie, one way or the other.......

Gary

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supernova

supernova

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Yeah, I've just watched Alien V Predator 1 and 2. Not sure that we'd want any of those criters down here mate. Might be best to leave well alone...... lol

Gary

That is fiction invented by us, good anyway, but think what is it going to look like? we don't have any idea.

I do think life is out there in abundance but at what stage---- :)

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gary1968

gary1968

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I watched a program once where they were saying that if we do find intelligent alien life it will be almost impossible for us to comunicate with them. Crossing the language barrier between us and them would be like us trying to communicate fluently with dolphins, in fact they said that would be easier as we and dolphins at least evolved on the same planet.

They keep saying on documentaries, after finding exo planets, that it is too close to or to far from its star or it has the wrong chemical composition for life to have evolved. But, surely life as we know it wouldn't have evolved. But, life might well have evolved but be very differant to earth.

Gary

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supernova

supernova

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Exactly as I see it and as for contact well -

That is even more difficult, we are thinking, they are the same as us.

I don't think so.

If we take time to think outside the box and outside the last box :)

And think that we have even missed there message because we cant receive it because we have not looked on the right wavelength then we will never know.

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Astronut

Astronut

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Isn't that the planet that "Spock" from Star Trek was from.

That's what I thought too and although Epsilon Eridani has been used in many sci-fi books and series this page doesn't mention it.

A quick search reveals that Mr. Spock's home planet Vulcan is set in the 40 Eridani triple star system orbiting the main star 40 Eridani A.

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