Below are screen shots from the above mentioned wikipedia page for these planets wherein they calculated the non-existent planet's orbit, mass, and confirmed the possibility for the existence of water... all regarding a planet which doesn't even exist. You will also notice an artist's rendition of the planet. Click on the picture for full viewing.
Washington (AFP) - US scientists said Thursday two distant Earth-like planets, which some believed might be able to harbor life, do not actually exist and that astronomers were confused by a star's sunspots.
The controversial pair of planets, Gliese d and g, some 22 light years away, were once believed to be in the Goldilocks zone -- not too close and not too far from the star, where the potential exists for water and perhaps life.
They are part of a larger trove of potentially Earth-like planets that have been identified by astronomers so far, and NASA has said billions may be out there.
Too far to be seen with the naked eye or a telescope, they were spotted with a technique called Doppler radial velocity, orbiting a cool, red star called Gliese 581.
The method takes starlight from telescope and analyzes its wavelengths. By detecting signs of a wobble from the gravitational tug of an orbiting planet, it can reveal the mass of a planet.
But astronomers at Pennsylvania State University now say Gliese 581 g and d were not planets at all, but a jumbled signal from the star itself.
"These two Goldilocks planets that people have been talking about, unfortunately, based on our research are not real," said co-author Suvrath Mahadevan, assistant professor in the department of astronomy and astrophysics. (source)
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