An international team of scientists has discovered a potentially habitable planet about 22 light years away from Earth. The planet, called GJ 667Cc or Gliese 667C c, has a mass about 4,5 times the Earth so it belongs to the category of planets called super-Earths. This planet has an orbital period of about 28 days around a class M red dwarf called GJ 667C or Gliese 667C.
55 Cancri e is one of the planet of the star 55 Cancri A. It has a mass nearly eight times the Earth, about half the mass of Neptune. The diameter of 55 Cancri e is about twice the Earth. Its orbital period is just about 18 days and the estimated surface temperature is about 1800 degrees Celsius (3200 degrees Fahrenheit). The extraordinary thing is that given the temperature and pressure existing on the surface of the planet it’s likely that various compounds are supercritical fluids.
The Kepler space telescope already discovered traces of over a thousand possible planets and ten of these concern possible planets similar in size to the Earth with an orbit in the habitable zone of their star. Now confirmation arrived about one of these, called Kepler-22b, distant about six hundred light years from our solar system.
Planetary scientists Guillaume Robuchon and Francis Nimmo of the University of California at Santa Cruz are examining the possibility that Pluto has an underground ocean analyzing the possible signs of its existence. In 2015 the New Horizon space probe should reach Pluto to discover this and other stuff.
