Solar system 2.0 found 10 light-years away

A planetary system located just 10.5 light-years away is remarkably similar to our solar system, scientists have found. The system is a prime location to research how planets form around stars like our Sun, researchers said. Located 10.5 light-years away in the southern hemisphere of the constellation Eridanus, the star Epsilon Eridani (eps Eri), is the closest planetary system around a star similar to the early Sun, according to researchers from the University of Arizona in the US.

Previous studies indicate that eps Eri has a debris disk, which is the name astronomers give to leftover material still orbiting a star after planetary construction has completed. The debris can take the form of gas and dust, as well as small rocky and icy bodies. Debris disks can be broad, continuous disks or concentrated into belts of debris, similar to our solar system’s asteroid belt and the Kuiper Belt – the region beyond Neptune where hundreds of thousands of icy-rocky objects reside.

Furthermore, careful measurements of the motion of eps Eri indicates that a planet with nearly the same mass as Jupiter circles the star at a distance comparable to Jupiter’s distance from the Sun. With the new Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy …read more