'Dear friends of science and ASTRONOMY,

Bulge' yields new planet class http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5407038.stm

Astronomers have discovered a new class of planets that take less than a day to
whiz round their parent stars. Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope
revealed the existence of the planets, which orbit closer to their stars than
any previously known. Dr Kailash Sahu and colleagues report finding the planets
in a faint, crowded star field in a region of the Milky Way known as the
galactic bulge. The team has published its findings in the scientific journal
Nature. It uncovered the existence of 16 planets in the category of close
orbiters, taking between 0.4 and 3.2 days to go around their respective stars.
Many of the planets are the size of Jupiter, the largest planet in our Solar
System. Two of the 16 have orbits of less than a day, creating a new category of
"ultra-short" orbit exoplanets. In addition, these worlds generally orbit stars
that are somewhat lighter than the typical stars where extrasolar planets have
been found before.
'Wobble' effect

Dr Sahu, from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, US, and
colleagues searched for the characteristic dips in a star's luminosity that
occur as it is temporarily blocked by an orbiting planet. They carried out
back-up, confirmation measurements using the "wobble" method, in which they
looked for a telltale oscillation, or wobble, in the light coming from a star as
it is tugged by the gravitational attraction of a planet. The researchers say
that any planets that orbited at such a close distance to brighter, hotter stars
would be destroyed by solar radiation. Astronomers have spotted 202 extrasolar
planets since the first was spotted in October 1995.

Planets suggest 'other Earths'

Nasa scientists have suggested it will not be long before the first Earth like
planets are discovered. 6 Oct 2006

Hubble reveals new planets

Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered 16 "planet candidates" orbiting a
variety of distant stars.4 Oct 2006


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