spacetoday.net: Spacecraft finds its first exoplanet

Spacecraft finds its first exoplanet

Posted: Mon, May 7, 2007, 8:27 AM ET (1227 GMT)
Corot illus. (CNES)

A French spacecraft launched late last year has discovered its first extrasolar planet, raising hopes that the satellite will be able to discover smaller, Earth-like exoplanets. The Corot spacecraft, developed by the French space agency CNES with ESA participation and launched into Earth orbit in late 2006, detected the exoplanet around a star 1,500 light-years away in the direction of the constellation Monoceros. Corot found the exoplanet, estimated to weigh about 1.3 Jupiter masses, when it transited across the star's disk, temporarily dimming the star by a minute amount. The detection suggests that the spacecraft's instruments will be sensitive enough to detect planets as small as the Earth using the same technique.