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


Fifth extrasolar planet found around star
Posted: Wed, Nov 7, 2007, 7:33 AM ET (1233 GMT)
55 Cancri exoplanets illus. (NASA/JPL) Astronomers announced Tuesday the discovery of a fifth planet orbiting a nearby Sun-like star, creating a solar system near as complex as our own. The new planet is 45 times the mass of the Earth and orbits in the star's "habitable zone", completing one orbit in 260 days. The planet is the fifth discovered orbiting the star 51 Cancri, 41 light-years from Earth. Unlike the other four, believed to be gas giants ranging in size from Neptune to four times that of Jupiter, this planet is likely a large rocky planet. Astronomers suggested that any sizable moons orbiting the new planet could be able to support the presence of liquid water on its surface and thus life. The overall planetary system demonstrates to astronomers that complex planetary systems like our own are not necessarily unusual in the universe.
<<previous article   next article>>
news in brief
Rocket Lab maintains 2025 target for first Neutron launch
Posted: Sat, Mar 1 11:32 AM ET (1632 GMT)

Progress launched to ISS
Posted: Sat, Mar 1 11:23 AM ET (1623 GMT)

Falcon 9 launches IM-2 lunar lander
Posted: Sat, Mar 1 11:20 AM ET (1620 GMT)

news links
Friday, March 14
Calls Swell For The U.S. To Invest In Space Superiority
Aviation Week — 4:23 am ET (0823 GMT)
Autonomy Has Outpaced International Space Law
War on the Rocks — 4:20 am ET (0820 GMT)
Sonic boom expected from SpaceX's second launch this week from Vandenberg SFB
KSBY-TV San Luis Obispo, CA — 4:20 am ET (0820 GMT)


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