New planet spotted
'Corot-Exo-1b' passing in front of its star
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Friday, 04, May 2007 02:55
A new space endeavour has produced its first evidence of a planet outside of our solar system.
Information from the Corot project, launched in December 2006, shows a giant planet passing in front of the sun-like star that it orbits.
Named 'Corot-Exo-1b', the planet is a very hot gas giant with a radius equal to 1.78 times that of Jupiter. It lies about 1,500 light years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Unicorn.
Scientists were able to detect it due to changes in the intensity of the light data from the star it orbits.
The discovery has been eagerly welcomed by the Corot team, which argues that it is the first of many more to come.
"The data we are presenting today is still raw but exceptional," said Malcolm Fridlund, Corot project scientist for the European Space Agency.
"It shows that the on-board systems are working better than expected in some cases - up to ten times the expectation before launch. This will have an enormous impact on the results of the mission.
"After a perfect launch, and a faster-than-expected start of its science operations, we have been eagerly awaiting [Corot's] data. Now, having seen its quality, we can expect great discoveries in the future," Dr Fridlund concluded.
Corot is the first space mission dedicated entirely to the search of planets outside of our solar system and the interior of stars other than our sun.