SIGHTINGS


 
18th Extrasolar Planet Found - Saturn-Sized With Similar Sun
By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online Science Editor
From Stig Agermose <stig.agermose@get2net.dk>
2-3-99

 
 
Scientists at the Geneva Observatory have discovered a new planet circling a star almost identical to our Sun.
 
It is the eighteenth planet known to be orbiting another star but is important because the mass of the new planet is similar to that of Saturn in our solar system. Previously discovered extra-solar planets have been somewhat larger.
 
At the moment astronomers are not able to detect Earth-sized planets around other stars. But they argue, if Jupiter and Saturn-sized planets exist, then it is likely that there are Earth-sized ones as well.
 
Detecting an Earth-like planet is one of the major goals of NASA's future space missions. Several designs of space observatories with this aim are being prepared for launch during the next 10-15 years.
 
Scientists have not obtained a picture of the new planet. That is not possible because of the glare of the star it is orbiting. Its presence was revealed through its slight gravitational effect on its parent star's motion. The star, called HD 75289, is in the southern sky and is 70 light years distant.
 
The new planet circles its star every 3.5 days in a very close orbit of five million miles. In our solar system the nearest planet to the sun, Mercury, orbits at 36 million miles. Being so close to the heat of its star it must be like no planet that we know.





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