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Nine Exoplanets Discovered in Solar System's 'Twin'
discovery ^ | Fri Apr 6, 2012 03:07 PM ET | Ian O'Neill

Posted on 04/08/2012 12:09:45 PM PDT by BenLurkin

In 2010, a star 127 light-years away stunned the world -- it had become the largest star system beyond our own, playing host to five, possibly seven, alien worlds. Now, the star (called HD 10180) is back in the headlines; it may actually have nine exoplanets orbiting it.

Interestingly, HD 10180 is a yellow dwarf star very much like the sun, so this discovery has drawn many parallels with our own Solar System. It is a multi-planetary system surrounding a sun-like star. But it is also a very alien place with an assortment of worlds spread over wildly different orbits.

It is believed that one of HD 10180's exoplanets is small -- although astronomers only know the planets' masses, not their physical size or composition. The smallest world weighs-in at 1.4 times the mass of Earth, making it a "super-Earth."

When it was first revealed that HD 10180 was a multi-planetary system, astronomers of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) detected six exoplanets gravitationally "tugging" on their host star. Using the "radial velocity" exoplanet detection method, the astronomers watched the star's wobble to decipher up to seven worlds measuring between 1.4 to 65 times the mass of Earth.

Five exoplanets were found to be 12-to-25 times the mass of Earth -- "Neptune-like" masses -- while another was detected orbiting in the outermost reaches of the system with a mass of 65 Earth masses (a "Saturn-like" world), taking around 2,200 days to complete one orbit.

But now, in addition to verifying the signal of the small 1.4 Earth-mass world, there appears to be another two small alien worlds.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.discovery.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Travel
KEYWORDS: astronomy; hd10180; science; xplanets
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To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA

Good Lord those Star Trek ships are slow - Culture ships routinely do over 90 lights and hour ...


21 posted on 04/12/2012 3:09:23 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: El Gato
It will be 2033 before that first voice broadcast reaches there

I wonder what they'll think of "The Village People"?

22 posted on 04/12/2012 3:16:11 AM PDT by Hot Tabasco
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To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA; KevinDavis

paging Dr. Alcubierre, paging Dr. Miguel Alcubierre.

23 posted on 04/12/2012 4:43:37 AM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: BenLurkin; TBP
But you have to look at the monitor in a mirror in order to read what the SRepeerf are posting.

Not exactly!


24 posted on 04/12/2012 5:50:33 AM PDT by 6ppc (It's torch and pitchfork time)
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To: BenLurkin

I think it will be funny when in 200 years or so, everything accepted today as science fact will be demolished as foolish and dangerously stupid.


25 posted on 04/12/2012 1:53:24 PM PDT by wastedyears (Signature for sale.)
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Sun's twin may be home to 9 alien planets -- ANI -- Washington, May 01, 2012

Suns twin may be home to 9 alien planets

26 posted on 05/20/2012 8:52:23 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (FReepathon 2Q time -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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