2007-12-31

Exoplanets

ScienceDaily: Your source for the latest research news  and science breakthroughs -- updated daily

ScienceDaily (Dec. 28, 2007) — An international team of astronomers, led by Professor Svetlana Berdyugina of ETH Zurich's Institute of Astronomy, has for the first time ever been able to detect and monitor the visible light that is scattered in the atmosphere of an exoplanet.

An artistic view of the HD189733 star-planet system near a half-moon phase when polarization of the light reflected by the planet reaches the maximum. (Credit: ETH Zurich, S.V. Berdyugina)
clipped from exoplanets.org


(November 6, 2007)
A fifth planet is reported around 55 Cancri. The latest find has a minimum mass of 46 Earth masses and an orbital period of 260 days.



(May 28, 2007)
Bounty of 28 new planets, 7 new brown dwarfs reported. Gliese 436 has a density of 2 grams/cc, indicating water.



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Related:
Exoplanets.org
CBA Belgium Observatory
Exoplanet Reflected Light Detected For The First Time
Ground-Based Telescope Measures Exoplanet Atmosphere For First Time | Wired Science from Wired.com
The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia