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Major extrasolar planet announcement Wednesday
croxis
I am the walrus
in Zocalo v2.0
From Badastronomy.com
On January 25 at 16:00 Universal time (08:00 Pacific), the European Space Agency (ESA) will make a major extrasolar planet announcement.
Frustratingly, that is all they are saying ("embargoed" generally means the press get advance notice, but they aren’t allowed to release any information until after the announcement– I have not received any other info, however). We’ve seen many big releases in the past about extarsolar planets, from multiple planets in one system to the lowest mass planet found, about half the mass of Uranus (a planet orbiting the nearby star Gliese 876).
I’ve chatted with astronomer-friends about stuff like this, and most of us agree that the next major announcement would have to be pretty big, but it’s hard to say what it could be. I guess we’ll find out Wednesday morning!
On January 25 at 16:00 Universal time (08:00 Pacific), the European Space Agency (ESA) will make a major extrasolar planet announcement.
Frustratingly, that is all they are saying ("embargoed" generally means the press get advance notice, but they aren’t allowed to release any information until after the announcement– I have not received any other info, however). We’ve seen many big releases in the past about extarsolar planets, from multiple planets in one system to the lowest mass planet found, about half the mass of Uranus (a planet orbiting the nearby star Gliese 876).
I’ve chatted with astronomer-friends about stuff like this, and most of us agree that the next major announcement would have to be pretty big, but it’s hard to say what it could be. I guess we’ll find out Wednesday morning!
Comments
Also the smallest ExP detected is 6-8 earth masses
(From wikipedia)
so verification of such would be a great step. Also, as stated, earth-sized planets would be a massive step.
Seriously though this sounds interesting!
Even better if they found it within the habitable region of a star. :D
[QUOTE]ESA TV News
The scientific journal NATURE will publish in its issue dated 26 January 2006, a major paper on a discovery addressing extra-solar planets.
The European Southern Observatory ESO contributed to this publication and has produced a Video News Release featuring new 3-D graphics, background footage and interview soundbites.
As for all NATURE papers, this release is strictly embargoed until 25 January 2006, at 18:00 GMT.
At that time, the script for this TV Exchange will be posted as a PDF file on [url]http://television.esa.int[/url]
Also a pre-view video clip will be online on the ESA TV Website.
This ESA TV Exchanges feed is transmitted by the European Commission's "Europe by Satellite" (EbS) service. You can find the complete transmission schedule and download scripts and shot lists, also for ESA TV items, from the EbS Web site at [url]http://europa.eu.int/comm/ebs/schedule.cfm[/url]
More backgroud information can be found on: [url]http://www.eso.org[/url]
[/QUOTE]
5 earth masses
star 25,000 ly away
Planet Name OGLE-2005-BGL-390Lb
Star Type: Red
Orbit: 2 AU
Hopefully more earthsize planets will pop up soon.
[B]
Planet Name OGLE-2005-BGL-390Lb
[/B][/QUOTE]
Oggle Biggle's 390 pounds? Isn't that a bit personal, Mr. B.?
:D
Jake