Astronomers find Jupiter- and Saturn-like exoplanets around distant star
Posted: Fri, Feb 15, 2008, 7:28 AM ET (1228 GMT)
A collaboration of professional and amateur astronomers has discovered two exoplanets, smaller versions of Jupiter and Saturn, orbiting a distant star. Astronomers used a technique called microlensing, where the gravity of an intervening object acts as a magnifying lens, briefly brightening a more distant object. The two planets were detected as "blips" during a microlensing event when their star, 5,000 light-years from Earth, passed in front of a more distant star. The two planets are about 80 percent the size of Jupiter and Saturn, and astronomers said the overall solar system is a smaller analog of our own solar system.
A collaboration of professional and amateur astronomers has discovered two exoplanets, smaller versions of Jupiter and Saturn, orbiting a distant star. Astronomers used a technique called microlensing, where the gravity of an intervening object acts as a magnifying lens, briefly brightening a more distant object. The two planets were detected as "blips" during a microlensing event when their star, 5,000 light-years from Earth, passed in front of a more distant star. The two planets are about 80 percent the size of Jupiter and Saturn, and astronomers said the overall solar system is a smaller analog of our own solar system.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Sunday, March 22
Isar Aerospace secures first active debris removal mission with Astroscale
Isar Aerospace — 5:50 pm ET (2150 GMT) Voyager Awarded Multi-Million-Dollar NASA Contract
Voyager Space — 5:44 pm ET (2144 GMT) What 'Project Hail Mary' gets right about microbes
Michigan State Univ. — 5:43 pm ET (2143 GMT) BlackSky wins seven-figure Assured extension contract with international customer
Black Sky — 5:42 pm ET (2142 GMT) Extremely Rare Second-Generation Star Discovered Inside Ancient Relic Dwarf Galaxy
National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory — 5:42 pm ET (2142 GMT) |
