Astronomically close
Earth-like planets potentially capable of supporting life may be right in our galactic neighborhood, researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and the California Institute of Technology said Wednesday. “The nearest Earth-like planet is probably 13 light-years away; astronomically speaking, that’s just a stroll across the park,” said Courtney Dressing, a doctoral student in Harvard’s Astronomy Department and the lead author of a new analysis of data from the Kepler Space Telescope, which since 2009 has been examining distant stars for signs of orbiting planets. Dressing, together with Professor David Charbonneau of Harvard’s Astronomy Department and John Johnson, an assistant professor of astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, appeared at a news conference to discuss the work. The new analysis focused on a category of stars smaller and dimmer than our own sun — “red dwarfs.” Red dwarfs offer several advantages for hunters of exoplanets, as worlds circling stars outside our...