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Mystery 'noise' could be an Earth-like world
Astronomers believe mysterious signals - previously dismissed as stellar bursts - are coming from an Earth-like planet.
The Gliese 581d planet has conditions that could support life, and is likely to be a rocky world, twice the size of Earth.
Signals from the planet were initially discovered in 2010, but last year dismissed as noise from distant stars.
Now, a further study claims that the 2014 research was based on 'inadequate analyses of the data' and that Gliese 581d does exist.
Last year, Pennsylvania State University researchers said Gliese 581d - and its companion Gliese 581g - were simply a trick of the light caused by magnetic bursts from a local star 22 light-years away.
The new British research, however, argues the method used by the Pennsylvania team was only suitable for large planets, and that it could miss small ones like GJ 581d.
The study, by Queen Mary University, London and the University of Hertfordshire, claims to use a more accurate model on the existing data.
'The existence (or not) of GJ 581d is significant because it was the first Earth-like planet discovered in the 'Goldilocks'-zone around another star and it is a benchmark case for the Doppler technique,' said lead author, Dr Guillem Anglada-Escudé.
Astronomers believe mysterious signals - previously dismissed as stellar bursts - are coming from an Earth-like planet.
The Gliese 581d planet has conditions that could support life, and is likely to be a rocky world, twice the size of Earth.
Signals from the planet were initially discovered in 2010, but last year dismissed as noise from distant stars.
Now, a further study claims that the 2014 research was based on 'inadequate analyses of the data' and that Gliese 581d does exist.
Last year, Pennsylvania State University researchers said Gliese 581d - and its companion Gliese 581g - were simply a trick of the light caused by magnetic bursts from a local star 22 light-years away.
The new British research, however, argues the method used by the Pennsylvania team was only suitable for large planets, and that it could miss small ones like GJ 581d.
The study, by Queen Mary University, London and the University of Hertfordshire, claims to use a more accurate model on the existing data.
'The existence (or not) of GJ 581d is significant because it was the first Earth-like planet discovered in the 'Goldilocks'-zone around another star and it is a benchmark case for the Doppler technique,' said lead author, Dr Guillem Anglada-Escudé.
