Three new planets found around sun-like star (Space.com/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Ker Than
SPACE.com

Thursday, May 18, 2006; Posted: 12:03 p.m. EDT (16:03 GMT)

(SPACE.com) -- Three medium-sized planets of roughly the same mass as Neptune have been discovered around a nearby sun-like star, scientists announced today.

The planets were discovered around HD 69830, a star slightly less massive than the sun located 41 light-years away in the constellation Puppis (the Stern), using the ultra-precise HARPS spectrograph on the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-meter La Silla telescope in Chile.

The finding, detailed in the May 18 issue of the journal Nature, marks a first for astronomers because previously discovered multi-planet solar systems besides our own contain at least one giant, Jupiter-sized planet.
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The setup is similar to our own solar system in many ways: The outermost planets is located just within the star's habitable zone, where temperatures are moderate enough for liquid water to form, and the system also contains an asteroid belt.

The newly discovered planets have masses of about 10, 12 and 18 times that of Earth and they zip around the star in rapid orbits of about 9, 32 and 197 days, respectively.

Based on their distances from the star, two inner worlds nearest the star are rocky planets similar to Mercury, the scientists suspect. The outermost planet is thought to have a solid core of rock and ice and shrouded by a thick gas envelope.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/05/18/extrasolar.planets/index.html

9 days in a year ?? I'm not sure that's so close to our own 'set-up'.

[1620rock]

1. The mass of Neptune? are they lifeless gasballs? eom

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Until the Earth telescope launches we will truly not know

that said, Drake's equation is becoming increasingly relevant

[jrw14125]

4. hope you got to see Sagan work that out on Cosmos this week

HE WAS SO HIGH

[htuttle]

7. Of course!

I always toast a bowl to Doctor Sagan on Tuesday nights.
Discover Science Channel, 8pm CST.

:smoke:

Billions and billions and billions, .... dude....

[jrw14125]

9. best scene might be him cutting the apple pie up - so awkward!

[Scribe]

8. So, where is everybody?

[Dudley_DUright]

3. The big problem is that the Doppler shift technique used here

is not yet sensitive enough to detect earth sized planets, but it is getter better all the time.

[Kutjara]

5. And, of course, even massive gas giants...

...can have moons that are Earthsized. They, too, would be in the 'life' zone (as we understand it, captain).

[catnhatnh]

6. ANOTHER Stupid MySpace.Com Story????

Oh,never mind....