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| A hypothetical view of 55 Cancri f by NASA |
55 Cancri is a star system 41 light years away from the Earth in the Cancer constellation. It is a binary star system. 55 Cancri A is a yellow star like our Sun and 55 Cancri B is a smaller red dwarf star. These stars orbit each other at a distance of 1000 AU (Astronomical Units). One AU is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. This star system has many planets in orbit around the two stars. On 6th November 2007, astronomers discovered a fifth planet in orbit around the star Cancri A. The first exoplanet around Cancri A was named Cancri b and is around the size of Jupiter and orbits close to the star. To read more about Jupiter, click here. Two more exoplanets were discovered in 2002 named, Cancri c and Cancri d. In 2004, a fourth planet was discovered. It was named Cancri e and is around the size of Neptune. It orbits the star in just 3 days. The fifth planet, Cancri f is around half the mass of Saturn and like Saturn, is composed mainly of gasses like helium and hydrogen. To read more about Saturn, click here. This planet lies in the Goldilocks Zone (the habitable zone) of the star and may have moons in orbit where liquid water may be present.
The Goldilocks Zone of the Sun lies in the orbit of the Earth. So, for a star of approximately the same size, age and luminosity of the Sun, the Goldilocks Zone would be around a distance of 1 AU. Cancri A is older and dimmer than our Sun so, astronomers have calculated that its Goldilocks Zone would be between 0.5 and 2 AU away from it. Cancri f is in this zone which makes it an interesting find for astronomers and space scientists.
Astronomers find planets around a star by looking for wobbles in the starlight. Finding multiple planets around a star becoms tricky as every planet produces its own wobble so, astronomers need to be able to spot wobbles within wobbles. This becoms tricky and after observing the 55 Cancri for over 20 years, have astronomers been able to find 5 exoplanets.
That is all for this post on the 55 Cancri star system. Hope you found it informative. Please show your support by following this blog and sharing it on social media.
Regards
Aarav Iyer
References:
(1) Unlocking The Universe - Stephen and Lucy Hawking
(2) (image) https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/7005/55-cancri-e/