Word: planetsized
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Old Stars Make New Planets
The rector of the 705-year-old university adamantly defended his invitation, which he says he'd do "100 times" over, and Vatican radio warned of "censorship" on the part of the protesting profs. The letter, which was signed by several notable members of the physics faculty, cites a 1990...
Like almost all extrasolar planets, the new world is too small and distant to be spotted by telescope. Instead, it was discovered by measuring the tiny wobbles its gravity imposes on the motion of its parent star.
This telltale flicker is easy to spot even from a small, ground-based telescope. So Charbonneau is setting up an array of eight 16-in. (40 cm) telescopes on Mount Hopkins, near Tucson, Ariz., and pointing them over and over at the 100 closest M-dwarfs to see if their...
The silhouette strategy for planet hunting will not replace the wobble-watching method. Indeed, red dwarfs make that method easier and faster. "M-dwarf stars are small," says astronomer Geoff Marcy of UC Berkeley, one of the discoverers of 55 Cancri's newfound planet. "That means planets can kick them...