The telescope space NASA Kepler has found six new planets around a sun-like star, strange worlds that astronomers have called mini Neptunes.
Five of the new planets are closer to their mother than Mercury is to the Sun-like star. The sixth world is still far, in a region that fall within the orbit of Venus.
"This is the most compact planetary system is called" the studio said co-author Jonathan Fortney, an astronomer at Lick Observatory at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
The planets are relatively small and have about 2 to 4.5 times the radius of the earth but they are also surprisingly light indicating that they are made mostly of gases. Based on their densities, four of the planets seem to have thick atmospheres of hydrogen and helium.
The two planets close to the star have higher densities suggesting that these organisms have an atmosphere made mostly of water with a thin skin of hydrogen and helium.
Find many planets around the same star and be able to calculate their property is a great scientific support, Fortney said. As paleontologists studying related dinosaur species, astronomers can see many worlds that were born together to gain an understanding of planetary transformations.
"We can do comparative science and ... we can think about the evolution of Planets