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Astronomers Find Smaller Extrasolar Planets
SABME writes "NASA has announced the discovery of a new class of extra-solar planets. Here's a link to the NASA news release. These planets are only 10-15 times bigger than Earth; how far off are we from discovering Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars? Future NASA missions aimed at broadening these discoveries include Kepler, the Space Interferometry Mission and the Terrestrial Planet Finder. More info available at NASA's Extrasolar Planets webiste.
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Yes, but are they Class M ?
Actually, yes. The star that is. What is remarkable is that one of these neptune-mass planets orbits a Class M star, the smallest and faintest in the standard stellar classes OBAFGKM. It is only the 2nd M star to harbor planets, even though hundreds have been studied.