WASHINGTON, Oct. 19, 2009
32 More Planets Found Outside Solar System
Latest Discoveries Boost Total Number of Extra-Solar Planets to More Than 400
-
This artist rendering provided by the European South Observatory shows some of the 32 new planets astronomers found outside our solar system, adding evidence to the theory that the universe has many places where life could develop. (AP Photo/European South Observatory)
-
Play CBS Video Video Space Camera Less Than $150 Two MIT students constructed a camera for under $150 that was able to photograph Earth from space. Shira Lazar talks with the inventors via Skype.
-
Video NASA Looks to Future For Space Program Bill Harwood, CBS News Space Consultant, discusses the end of NASA's shuttle program and looks ahead to new rocket boosters NASA's latest moon rockets.
Scientists using the European Southern Observatory telescope 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 super-Earths 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 around the most common types of stars.
"I'm pretty confident that there are Earth-like planets everywhere," Udry said in a Web-based news briefing 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 that about 40 percent of sun-like stars have planets that are closer to being Earth-sized than the size of Jupiter. Jupiter's mass is more than 300 times that of Earth's.
Depending on definitions of the size of super-Earths, the discovery suggests that planets that have a mass similar to Earth's are "extraordinarily commonplace," said Alan Boss, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. He was not part of the European team. "The universe must indeed be crowded with habitable worlds."
Boss said finding 32 planets at once is a record "and it really shows that the Europeans have taken the lead" in finding planets outside the solar system.
The discoveries were made by the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, which is an attachment to the European observatory telescope in Chile that looks for slight wobbles in a star's movements. Those changes would be made by the tug of a planet's gravity on the star. There are no photos of these planets.
© MMIX The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBSNews.com On Digg
More From SciTech
Add a Comment See all 68 Comments
- It is comment sites like this that disprove the theory that intelligent life exists in the universe, above or below our solar plexus system.
- Reply to this comment
- by displeased October 19, 2009 9:35 PM EDT
There was once where I was banned, and for some reason I thought I would try the same name and password again, and I got back on.
by erasmus111 October 19, 2009 7:16 PM EDT
You were banned? You're one of the few who I've never seen post anything offensive. You must have been having a really bad day!
Actually I've had a few bad days. : ) I've been banned several times, but not for a really long time. Most of the times I was banned for talking off topic. Either that or it was because I was talking about GUNS. Them gun lovers don't like you saying anything against their guns. Are you a gun lover? : ) - Reply to this comment
-
- I wouldn't consider myself a gun lover. I do own a couple but they haven't been touched in several years. I think we should strictly enforce the gun laws we have.
- There was once where I was banned, and for some reason I thought I would try the same name and password again, and I got back on.
by erasmus111 October 19, 2009 7:16 PM EDT
You were banned? You're one of the few who I've never seen post anything offensive. You must have been having a really bad day! - Reply to this comment
- by shazmiforce2 October 19, 2009 8:08 PM EDT
You still didn't get it eras-your-mass of...
For some reason you and I have a problems communicating.: ) - Reply to this comment
- by shazmiforce2 October 19, 2009 7:38 PM EDT
...So are you eluding to the fact that, I still have mobility...
You don't need much mobility with a knothole.
"...you are out of luck to meet your amazing man on planet of the oldie kinds...lololololol"
Now why would I want to meet a man from another planet when that is where we are sending all the perverted losers? : ) - Reply to this comment
-
- nice talkin' to you ras. had fun today, but not enough to get banned. I called a guy a "communist", mighta done it. Maybe CBS is not banning quite as impetuously, but simply removing your less than savory postings.
- by SkirtLifter October 19, 2009 8:06 PM EDT
Maybe CBS is not banning quite as impetuously, but simply removing your less than savory postings.
You probably won't be back to see this, but I do remember that they used to just delete the bad comments and leave the rest. They wouldn't ban you unless there were lots and they were really bad.
- Helloooooo...SkirtLifter.
Where are you?
Did you find out that you actually are banned? : ) - Reply to this comment
- by shazmiforce2 October 19, 2009 7:19 PM EDT
...There has been a another man on my mind, that live in my mind on planet far far away ....
Ahh, that's nice. You better start building your spaceship, you want to get there while you still have some mobility. - Reply to this comment
- by shazmiforce2 October 19, 2009 7:10 PM EDT
OH yes, I forgoty that we do have shazmi sun's of the cold matter..
I think you're delusional again.: ) No cold suns for shazmi and charlie. - Reply to this comment
- by SkirtLifter October 19, 2009 6:48 PM EDT
I think I've been transported...all of todays comments are gone!
Yes, I just checked the Balloon Boy story and indeed your posts are gone from there too. That's weird.
Maybe the goons are in a good mood today and are just punishing you a little? Or maybe they will show back up again later.
There was once where I was banned, and for some reason I thought I would try the same name and password again, and I got back on. - Reply to this comment
- by SkirtLifter October 19, 2009 6:52 PM EDT
Hey ras, Have you ever seen all of your comments disappear, yet NOT be banned?
There are times that some posts have disappeared and then show back up hours later and I think that I have been banned but I haven't. In fact they will go missing, then come back and go missing again. But that isn't ALL posts from every story going missing at the same time. Is that what you are talking about?
A long time ago if you had been banned, they would just remove a few posts. Then they started removing ALL posts in existance. : ) Now it's back to just removing a few, I think.
But NO, I have never had all posts disappear and not be banned. - Reply to this comment
Gen. Ray Odierno, head of multinational forces in Iraq, on progress there and plans for Afghanistan.
