[meteorite-list] A bunch more planets. Yawn.

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:52:54 -0500
Message-ID: <j56pd5dagq9e4cg40aduu3g0f0p2qc081g_at_4ax.com>

We now live in a time when there are so many known extrasolar planets that the
discovery of a few dozen more of them is kind of pedestrian.


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gSIOd5240uPvZThYwptYclUq5E3QD9BE6H4O0

Lots more planets found outside solar system

By SETH BORENSTEIN (AP) ? 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON ? Astronomers have found 32 new planets outside our solar system,
adding evidence to the theory that the universe has many places where life could
develop.

Scientists using European Southern Observatory telescopes didn't find any
planets quite the size of Earth or any that seemed habitable or even unusual.
But their announcement increased the number of planets discovered outside the
solar system to more than 400.

Six of the newly found planets are several times bigger than Earth, increasing
the population of so-called SuperEarths by more than 30 percent. Most planets
discovered so far are far bigger, Jupiter-sized or even larger.

Two of the newly discovered planets were as small as five times the size of
Earth and one was up to five times larger than Jupiter.

Astronomer Stephane Udry of the University of Geneva said the results support
the theory that planet-formation is common, especially with certain type of
common stars.

"I'm pretty confident that there are Earth-like planets everywhere," Udry said
in a Web-based news conference from a conference in Portugal. "Nature doesn't
like a vacuum. If there is space to put a planet there, there will be a planet
there."

What astronomers said is especially exciting is the high percentage ? about half
? of a type of star systems with relatively light stars that had planets around
them. This is more than planet-formation theory expected, astronomers said. Two
of the four planets found around these type stars were relatively close to Earth
size, said astronomer Xavier Bonfils of Grenoble Observatory in France.

The discoveries were made by the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher,
which looks for slight wobbles in a star's movements, which would be made by the
tug of a planet's gravity on the star. There are no photos of these planets.
Received on Mon 19 Oct 2009 12:52:54 PM PDT