http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/new-planets-discovered/story-e6frg6so-1226136140806 50 new planets discovered Leigh Dayton From: The Australian September 14, 2011 12:00AM THE amount of cosmic real estate just skyrocketed, with the discovery of 50 planets beyond our solar system bolstering the quest to find alien life.
The discovery of the planets was announced yesterday by astronomers with the European Southern Observatory. They comprise the largest group simultaneously revealed and bring the tally of so-called extra-solar planets to nearly 600. "This is good news for those hoping to find some company in the galaxy," said Seth Shostak, senior astronomer with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute in San Francisco, California. The discovery team leader, astronomer Michel Mayor of Switzerland's Geneva University, said 16 of the planets were "super-Earths" - with a mass of one to 10 times that of Earth. Speaking at the Extreme Solar Systems conference near Jackson, Wyoming, Professor Mayor said one super-Earth even orbits at the edge of the habitable zone of its star. The planets were found by the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher spectrograph on the 3.6m telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. Arizona State University cosmologist and astrobiologist Paul Davies said the new discoveries bring SETI searchers "tantalisingly close" to finding a second Earth. As Dr Shostak told The Australian, the inventory will grow next year when NASA's Kepler telescope determines what fraction of stars have planets that can support life. "The answer is likely to be somewhere between 1 and 10 per cent," he said. Related Coverage a.. Planet girth - our world's big sister Adelaide Now, 3 hours ago b.. It's life, but not as you'd like it Courier Mail, 4 hours ago c.. 50 new alien planets found The Daily Telegraph, 9 hours ago d.. Massive storm runs rings around Saturn Adelaide Now, 7 Jul 2011 e.. Aussies to see 'blood-red Moon' The Daily Telegraph, 15 Jun 2011 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
