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


Astronomers estimate more planets than stars in our galaxy
Posted: Thu, Jan 12, 2012, 8:41 AM ET (1341 GMT)
Exoplanet abundance illustration (ESO) The number of planets in our galaxy likely exceeds the number of stars, putting the total number of worlds at over 100 billion, astronomers reported Wednesday. An international team of astronomers used a technique called gravitational microlensing, where the gravity of a star and any planets act like a lens, magnifying the light of a background star. Microlensing search efforts have detected several planets in recent years, allowing scientists to calculate statistics on the likelihood of extrasolar planets. By their calculations, one of six stars studied have Jupiter-sized planets, half have Neptune-sized planets, and two-thirds have so-called "super-Earth" terrestrial planets. Combining these statistics lead astronomers to conclude that the average number of planets per star is more than one, meaning there is over 100 billion planets in our galaxy.
<<previous article   next article>>
news in brief

SpaceX launches Indonesia communications satellite
Posted: Sun, Sep 14 4:07 AM ET (0807 GMT)

Soyuz launches Progress cargo spacecraft to ISS
Posted: Sun, Sep 14 4:06 AM ET (0806 GMT)

news links
Monday, September 15
SpaceX Launches Northrop Grumman Cargo Ship To ISS
Aviation Week — 1:18 am ET (0518 GMT)
SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on Sunday
WESH-TV Orlando — 1:18 am ET (0518 GMT)


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