In Douglas Adams's popular sci-fi series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the wandering characters find their way to a mysterious world named Magrathea that was once at the centre of the custom planet-building industry. In the story, Magrathea is described as an ancient planet orbiting around twin suns in the heart of the Horsehead Nebula. But how common might such planets actually be in our Galaxy?
Gabriele Columba, a PhD student in the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Padua, Italy, and his colleagues have been investigating. The type of planetary system they're interested in is an exoplanet orbiting a binary pair where both partners are white dwarfs - which they dub Magrathea worlds. (Although, here they're considering gas giants rather than the sort of terrestrial planet that features in Hitchhiker's.)
この記事は BBC Sky at Night Magazine の July 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は BBC Sky at Night Magazine の July 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
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