ET: The Exoplanet Tracker

spacedaily.com ^ | 01/13/06

[KevinDavis]

Astronomers have discovered a planet orbiting a very young star nearly 100 light years away using a relatively small, publicly accessible telescope turbocharged with a new planet-finding instrument.

The feat suggests that astronomers have found a way to dramatically accelerate the pace of the hunt for planets outside our solar system.

"In the last two decades, astronomers have searched about 3,000 stars for new planets," said Jian Ge, a professor of astronomy at the University of Florida. "Our success with this new instrument shows that we will soon be able to search stars much more quickly and cheaply - perhaps as many as a couple of hundred thousand stars in the next two decades."

[KevinDavis]

[SunkenCiv]

Any planets discovered on my birthday have to be named "SunkenCivitas". There, I called it.