Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Rich Exoplanet System Discovered

Astronomers have discovered a planetary system containing at least five planets that orbit a star called HD 10180, which is much like our own Sun. Christophe Lovis from Geneva University's observatory in Switzerland was lead researcher on the study. He said that his team had probably found "the system with the most planets yet discovered".

So far, the astronomers have picked up clear signals from five planets, along with two slightly "fuzzier" signals. One of these possible sixth and seventh planets was estimated to be just 1.4 times the mass of the Earth; if its presence in the system was confirmed, it would be the lowest mass exoplanet yet discovered.

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