Solar System around 55 Cancri


Lehrer's newshour yesterday had an unusual segment about
a nearby solar system around a star 40 light years away, in the
constellation Cancer. The interesting thing is that there are
apparently five planets so far around this star, which is evidence
supporting the idea that solar systems are common. The planets
around 55 Cancri are huge by our solar system's standard, the
four smaller ones being about the size of Neptune and the
more distant large one being four times the size of Jupiter, or
we wouldn't be able to detect them yet. We haven't actually
"seen" the planets, we just know they're there by analyzing the
wobble of the star that we can see. Similarly, our own sun
would move slightly back and forth as see from a distance,
because Jupiter pulls on the sun as it orbits around it.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071106133058.htm
Analyzing the components of the wobble of 55 Cancri based
on five large planets pulling on it seems to me quite a difficult
project, because of the exactness required about the change
of position of the star over a period of time needed to allow
multivariate analysis of what components would be contributing
to its complex resultant pattern of motion.

55 Cancri is a yellow dwarf like our sun, and in addition to
its planetary system it has a red dwarf companion 1000 AU
away:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/55_Cancri

40 light years is fairly close to us. The closest star system
to Sol is the Alpha Centauri system four light years away, so
there are (ball-park) only about (40/4) cubed = 1000 stellar
systems that close to us.


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Relevant Pages

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