The Sky Tonight

March 10, 2015

'Habitable' planet GJ 581d previously dismissed as noise probably does exist
London UK (SPX) Mar 10, 2015
The planet candidate was spotted using a spectrometer which measures the 'wobble', small changes in the wavelength of light emitted by a star, caused as a planet orbits it. In 2014 researchers revisiting the data said that the 'planet' was actually just noise in the data caused by starspots. The possible existence of the planet was widely dismissed without further questioning. But now researchers from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and University of Hertfordshire have questioned the method ... read more

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