AN ANCIENT SOLAR SYSTEM LIKE OURS: Scientists have discovered a solar system with five Earth-sized planets dating to the dawn of the galaxy, according to the University of Birmingham, England.
Writing in The Astrophysical Journal, the researchers noted a sunlike star hosting five planets with sizes between Mercury and Venus.
The star, known as Kepler-444, was formed 11.2 billion years ago and is 117 light-years away. This is the oldest known system of terrestrial-sized planets in our galaxy -- two and a half times older than the Earth.
A MAMMOUTH SATURN: A planet with a mammoth ring system – larger and heavier than Saturn's rings – orbits a young sunlike star, according to researchers at the Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands, and the University of Rochester, New York.
The ring system, the first of its kind found outside our solar system, was discovered in 2012 by a team led by Eric Mamajek, associate professor at the University of Rochester's physics and astronomy department.
A new analysis shows that the system consists of more than 30 rings, each tens of millions of kilometers in diameter. Researchers also found gaps in the rings, which indicate satellites -- exomoons -- may have formed.
This report was compiled with news releases from NASA, University of Birmingham, England, and University of Rochester, New York.
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