spacetoday.net: space news from around the webin association with SpaceNews


Astronomers announce discovery of dozens of exoplanets
Posted: Tue, Sep 13, 2011, 7:51 AM ET (1151 GMT)
HD 85512b exoplanet illustration (ESO/M. Kornmesser) Astronomers announced Monday the discovery of 50 new extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, including a "super-Earth" that orbits on the edge of a star's habitable zone. Astronomers discovered the exoplanets using a spectrograph mounted on a telescope at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile. Of the 50 new exoplanets, 16 are so-called "super-Earths", planets between one and ten times the mass of the Earth. One of those 16, HD 85512 b, is about 3.6 times the mass of the Earth and orbits on the edge of its star's habitable zone, a region that would allow liquid water to exist on the planet's surface. The overall discovery, the largest number of exoplanets announced at one time, brings the total number of confirmed exoplanets to over 600.
<<previous article   next article>>
news in brief
Starship explodes during preparations for static-fire test
Posted: Sun, Jun 22 6:52 AM ET (1052 GMT)

French government leads investment in Eutelsat
Posted: Sat, Jun 21 8:38 AM ET (1238 GMT)

NASA further delays Ax-4 launch
Posted: Sat, Jun 21 8:34 AM ET (1234 GMT)

news links
Thursday, June 26


about spacetoday.net   ·   info@spacetoday.net   ·   mailing list