“It's very massive. It might not be the sort of place that, at least life as we know it, would find to be a comfortable environment. However, this planet, in fact, orbits in what we call the habitable zone."
Planets in the habitable zone have a range of temperatures that might support life, if not on the planet itself, then possibly on a moon, if the planet has any moons.
Exoplanets are generally discovered indirectly by detecting changes in the light coming from a star as its orbit is affected by nearby planets. Sometimes it can take years to sort out these Doppler observations.
The more massive the planet, the easier it is to detect. But Debra Fischer, of San Francisco State University, says the growing sophistication of the technique increases the chances of finding planets more like our own.
"So what we're doing right now with our observational technique, the Doppler technique, is taking really the very first steps to finding Earth-like planets. You know, we'll basically give NASA the addresses, the names and addresses, of the most likely candidates for Earth-like planets."
Debra Fischer and her colleagues will publish their findings in an upcoming edition of Astrophysical Journal.
參考譯文：
它的質量很大。它可能不是那種至少我們所知道的生命形式能夠舒適生存的環境。不過這個行星實際上是在一個我們叫做“可居住帶”的軌道上運轉。
處在“可居住帶”內的行星可能有合適生命存在的溫度，如果不是在行星本身，也有可能在它的衛星上，如果這顆行星有衛星的話。
（太陽）系外行星通常是間接被發現的，當恆星的軌道受到附近的行星影響時，能探測到恆星的光發生變化。有時需要數年來整理這些多普勒觀測結果。
行星的質量越大，就越容易被探測到。但舊金山州立大學的德布拉菲斯切說，日益精密的技術擴大了找到類地行星的機會。
因此我們利用現有的觀測技術——多普勒技術所做的.研究正是找到類地行星的最初幾步。你知道，我們主要是給NASA提供最類似地球的那些行星的位置和名字。
德布拉菲斯切和她的同事們將把她們的研究成果登在即將出版的《天體物理雜誌》上。
