Wednesday, February 2, 2011

News:Six exoplanets in close orbit around far-flung star

A solar system including six planets around a star 2,000 light-years away has been spotted by astronomers.
The planets range between two and four-and-a-half times the radius of Earth, and between two and 13 times its mass.
Five of the planets orbit the star closer than Mercury orbits our Sun.
The find, published in Nature, is the first from the latest data release from the Kepler space telescope - which includes details of more than 1,000 additional exoplanet candidates.
The planets are likely to have atmospheres made of light gases, but also likely to be too hot to support life. more here

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