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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Major extrasolar planet announcement

A major news story will be released on the 25 of January. Word has it that it will be of a major extrasolar planet announcement. But the news is embargoed for now.

Perhaps an Earth-like planet discovered?

Can't wait to find out.

Visit the ESA for news straight from the source:

television.esa.int/default.cfm#

[Maddad]

About half the stars are binaries, but this says that 20% of the extrasolar planets found so far have binaries. That's less than for the general population of stars, but then again, before this we thought that binary stars couldn't have planets. We've got some re-thinking to do.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

ASTRONOMERS FIND SMALLEST EXTRASOLAR PLANET YET AROUND NORMAL STAR

Using an armada of telescopes, an international team of astronomers has found the smallest planet ever detected around a normal star outside our
solar system. The extrasolar planet is five times as massive as Earth and orbits a red dwarf, a relatively cool star, every 10 years. This artist's illustration shows an icy/rocky planet orbiting a dim star.

The distance between the planet, designated OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, and its host is about three times greater than that between the Earth and the Sun. The planet's large orbit and its dim parent star make its likely surface temperature a frigid minus 364 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 220 degrees Celsius).

For the full story, visit:
hubblesite.org/news/2006/06
www.nsf.gov/news/newsmedia/planet06/index.jsp