8 New Planets Discovered
(From the March/April 2002 issue of StarDate
magazine)
An international team of astronomers has found eight new planets
orbiting other stars, including a couple of planets with nearly
circular orbits. “As our search continues, we’re finding
planets in larger and larger orbits,” said Steve Vogt of Lick
Observatory. “Most of the planetary systems we’ve found
have looked like very distant relatives of the solar system —
no family likeness at all. Now we’re starting to see something
like second cousins. In a few years’ time, we could be finding
brothers and sisters.” These recent discoveries mean that
astronomers have now discovered about 80 planets outside our solar
system. — Rebecca Johnson
» More information about extrasolar planets
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