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- WELLINGTON (Reuters) - An international team of scientists has discovered
an Earth-size planet in the middle of the Milky Way believed to have the
potential to support life, a New Zealand member of the group said Tuesday.
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- ``It has a probable mass range between
that of the Earth and that of the planet Neptune. Probably it would be
a little bit heavier than the Earth,'' researcher Ian Bond said.
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- Auckland University fellow Bond said
by telephone from the Mount John observatory in New Zealand's South Island
that the planet was the right distance from the nearest star to sustain
life.
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- ``It will be something like between one
to four astronomical units, which places it in a promising region,'' he
said.
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- An astronomical unit is calculated to
be the mean distance between the center of the earth and the center of
the sun.
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- A team of New Zealand and Japanese astronomers,
working with Australian and U.S. partners observing from Australia's Mount
Stromlo, discovered the planet last July.
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- They presented their findings at an American
Astronomical Society meeting in the United States over the weekend.
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- The two teams used a relatively new technique
called gravitational microlensing, which essentially uses the chance alignment
of dim and bright stars to detect potential planets.
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- ``This is the first discovery using the
microlensing technique. It's the only technique that is sensitive to earth-size
planets,'' Bond said.
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- The planet, which is around 30,000 light
years away, cannot be seen directly and there was no way of confirming
whether it has water or any of the elements that may support life, he added.
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- Bond, with Auckland University Associate
Professor Philip Yock and Japanese astronomers, will resume stargazing
around the Milky Way in April for more extrasolar planets.
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- There are at least 17 known planets outside
the solar system, but few are believed to be capable of sustaining life.
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- The joint New Zealand-Japanese team is
funded by both governments.
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