32 NEW PLANETS IN OTHER SOLAR SYSTEMS ARE DISCOVERED – REVEAL HOW PLANETS ARE FORMED – LIFE APART FROM US?
32 new Planets are discovered in 2009
The smallest is five times the size of the earth
This picture taken in January 2009 illustrate the eksoplanet HD80606b which is around 200 lightyears away from earth. European astronomers disclosed that they had discovered 32 new previously unkown eksoplanets orbiting other stars than our own sun. Photo: Scanpix/AFP PHOTO / NASA / Spitzer Space Telescope
HD 80606 b is a superjovian planet (Eccentric Jupiter) 190 light-years distant in the constellation of Ursa Major. The planet was discovered orbiting the star HD 80606 in April 2001 by a team led by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz. Based on its mass, at 4 times that of Jupiter, it is a gas giant. Since the planet transits its star, its radius is determined to be at 73,560 km (slightly larger than planet Jupiter).
