‘Earth-like’ planets three times more than thought: Indian-origin scientist

“We now estimate that if we were to look at 10 of the nearest small stars we would find about four potentially habitable planets,give or take,” Kopparapu said.

“That is a conservative estimate. There could be more,” Kopparapu added.

Kopparapu recalculated the commonness of Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones of low-mass stars,also known as cool stars or M-dwarfs.

According to his findings,”The average distance to the nearest potentially habitable planet is about seven light years. That is about half the distance of previous estimates,” Kopparapu said in a statement.

“There are about eight cool stars within 10 light-years,so conservatively,we should expect to find about three Earth-size planets in the habitable zones,” he said.

The work follows up on a recent study by researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics which analysed 3,987 M-dwarf stars to calculate the number of Earth-sized planet candidates in cool stars’ habitable zones a region around a star where rocky planets are capable of sustaining liquid water and therefore life.

Kopparapu noticed that its findings,based on data from NASA’s Kepler satellite,didn’t reflect the most recent estimates for determining whether planets fall within a habitable zone.

These newer estimates are based on an updated model developed by Kopparapu and collaborators,using information on water and carbon dioxide absorption that was not available in 1993.

“I used our new habitable zone calculations and found that there are nearly three times as many Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones around these low mass stars as in previous estimates,” Kopparapu said.

“This means Earth-sized planets are more common than we thought,and that is a good sign for detecting extraterrestrial life,” said Kopparapu.

The study was published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.

5 yrs after asking Colin Montgomerie to ‘zip his mouth’,Shiv to tee off with him

Greater Noida

When an angry Colin Montgomerie questioned the special invite given to Jeev Milkha Singh for the 2008 Augusta Masters,Shiv Kapur had asked the legendary Scot to just “zip his mouth” in a rare display of aggression by a golfer.

Five years later,the two are set to tee off together when the Ryder Cup star makes his India debut at the European,Asian PGTI tri-sanctioned Avantha Masters starting at the Jaypee Greens golf course here tomorrow.

The two will start from the first tee half past afternoon along with Mardan Mamat of Singapore.

Interestingly,Jeev will tee off 10 minutes after them with defending champion Jbe Kruger and David Horsey of England.

Kapur’s blunt reaction to Montgomerie’s anger against invitations handed out to Asian players at that time is,however,a long-forgotten tale.

It just so happened that Jeev,who was in sublime form at that time and had broken into the world top-50,had been handed a special invitation to compete in the prestigious Augusta Masters for the second time.

The 49-year-old Montgomerie,on the other hand,had missed his chance after failing to finish inside top-50.

The disgruntled Scot,considered the best player never to have won a Major,claimed the invitations such as the one given to Jeev were driven by commercial interests.

Kapur took up the cudgels on Jeev’s behalf and minced no words in giving it back to the Ryder Cup star.

“It’s a clear case of sour grapes. He should just zip his mouth and focus on his game,” Shiv had said.

As the two gear up to tee off in the same group tomorrow,it would be interesting to see if any of the two recall anything or let it remain a closed chapter.