‘Odds in favour’ of finding other young Earth-like planets after scientists find more Sun-like stars in young stellar groups than expected
- Researchers studied groups of young stars known as ‘young moving groups’
- It had previously been difficult to study these as the blend into the Milky Way
- As a result the team found that they contain more stars than previously thought
- These systems may also contain young, hot and rocky proto-Earth-like planets
- It should be possible to spot their magma oceans with infrared telescopes
The ‘odds are in favour’ of finding other young Earth-like planets, as experts have found that young stellar groups contain more Sun-like stars than expected.
Experts from Sheffield studied groups of young stars in the Milky way to determine if they were typical when compared to other star forming regions in the universe.
They then investigated whether the number of various stars in each group increased the chances of finding ‘magma ocean planets’ — which are like ‘baby’ Earths.
The findings may help scientists understand if star formation is a universal phenomenon — alongside shedding light on how rocky, Earth-like worlds form.
The ‘odds are in favour’ of finding other young Earth-like planets, as experts have found that young stellar groups contain more Sun-like stars than expected. Pictured, an artist’s impression of a so-called ‘magma ocean planet’ forming like the young Earth did
Magma ocean planets are formed by the successive collision of rocks and smaller planetoids, the impacts of which heat up their surface so much that it becomes molten rock — helping us to find them.
‘These magma ocean planets are easier to detect near stars like the Sun, which are twice as heavy as the average mass star.’ said paper author and astrophysicist Richard Parker of the University of Sheffield.
‘These planets emit so much heat that we will be able to observe the glow from them using the next generation of infra-red telescopes.’
‘The locations where we would find these planets are so-called “young moving groups” which are groups of young stars that are less than 100 million years old — which is young for a star,’ Dr Parker explained.
‘However, they typically only contain a few tens of stars each and previously it was difficult to determine whether we had found all of the stars in each group because they blend into the background of the Milky Way galaxy.’
‘Observations from the Gaia telescope have helped us to find many more stars in these groups, which enabled us to carry out this study.’
Experts from Sheffield studied groups of young stars in the Milky way to determine if they were typical when compared to other star forming regions in the universe. They then investigated whether the number of stars in each group increased the chances of finding so-called ‘magma ocean planets’, pictured — which are like ‘baby’ Earths
The findings come after scientists at the Max Planck Institute spotted an Earth-like planet orbiting Kepler-160 — a star which resembles our own sun in both size and its surface temperature.
The planet, KOI-456.04, is located in the system’s so-called ‘habitable zone’ — the region around a star in which liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface.
However, with Kepler-160 and the planet both being some 3,000 light-years away, it remains unclear what KOI-456.04’s atmosphere might be like.
‘The locations where we would find these planets are so-called “young moving groups” which are groups of young stars that are less than 100 million years old — which is young for a star,’ Dr Parker explained. ‘Observations from the Gaia telescope [pictured] have helped us to find many more stars in these groups, which enabled us to carry out this study’
‘Being involved in this project was one of the highlights of our university experience,’ said undergraduate researcher Molly Haigh, also of the University of Sheffield.
‘It was rewarding to see a physical application of the computer coding we learnt in our degree by sampling the initial mass distribution of stars and how this can relate to the future of exoplanet detection.’
With their initial study complete, the researchers are now looking to use computer simulations to map out the origin of the young groups of stars they examined.
The full findings of the study were published in the Astrophysical Journal.