A study by a group of astrophysicists at the University of Texas and published in the Astrophysical Journal suggests that a habitable planet very similar to Earth may exist in a star system just 16 light years away.
This is the planet Gliese 832c, hidden in the star system Gliese 832. Gliese 832 is a red dwarf with a mass slightly less than half the mass of the Sun and a similar radius.
A team of astronomers led by Dr. Robert Wittenmeier of the University of New South Wales, Australia, has discovered an "terrestrial" exoplanet orbiting the red dwarf Gliese 832, according to the Institute of Radio Astronomy and Astrophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
The star Gliese 832 is located in the constellation Crane, about 16 light years (151 billion kilometers) from Earth. In addition to Gliese 832c, the Gliese 832 system also contains a Jupiter-like planet that was discovered in 2009 and named Gliese 832b.
“One gas giant rotates at a distance of 3.53 AU. away from the star, and another, possibly rocky planet at a distance of 0.16 AU, it can easily be assumed that the planetary system Gliese 832 is similar to our solar system, explains Chris Tinney, professor at the University of New South Wales and co-author of the study.