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- Scientists at the Geneva Observatory
have discovered a new planet circling a star almost identical to our Sun.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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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