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Astronomers Announce 5-Planet System

Posted by kdawson on from the looking-for-something-rockier dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Astronomers have detected a record-breaking 5th planet orbiting the star 55 Cancri, 41 light years distant. This planet orbits within the 'habitable zone,' where water could presumably exist, but it's probably another gas giant like Saturn, so any liquid water would have to be on a moon. There's still a big gap between this planet and the outermost planet where no planets have been detected yet, so there could yet be a rocky planet in the system. The lead researcher said he's optimistic that 'continued observations will reveal a rocky planet within five years.'"

2 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What Record? by meringuoid · · Score: 5, Insightful
    That shouldn't be too hard considering we're probably missing over half of the extrasolar planets with our current detection threshold.

    To a very, very close approximation, we're missing all the extrasolar planets. We've yet to discover a single one outside our own Galaxy :-)

    --
    Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
  2. Re:SETI, and contact them? by jamstar7 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Upside, they're now watching the original Star Trek in its first run.

    Downside, they're judging us all by William Shatner.

    --
    Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.