New Exoplanet Planets Found

In Honolulu, at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society astronomers announced they have found 28 new planets right outside our solar system, Bringing the number of exoplanets to a 236. Twelve percent of that total was added in 2006. Researchers cannot wait to start studying the properties of these new planetary systems. The 28 was among 37 new objects spotted in deep space in the past year. Some of the rest were Brown Dwarfs, failed stars that can be as big Jupiter, but lack the nuclear reaction necessary for stellar ignition.

Astronomers look for stellar wobbles, which are caused by orbiting planets. Not directly spotting the exoplanets. They can tell the planets size along with the distance it is from the parent star by how weak or strong a planets stellar wobble is. Thanks to advances in technology, there are more sophisticated techniques for detecting stellar wobbles. Detecting wobbles of a meter per second as compared to the 10-meter limit 15 years ago. I am not too sure what all that means, I just know I means they can look deeper into space.

Four of the newly spotted planets appear to belong to multiple-planet systems, which is exciting since it supports the idea that almost 30 percent of all planet-parent stars have more the planet orbiting it. The smaller planets and those that are outside solar system are harder to detect, but many predict that this percentage will continue rise with new technology improving detection methods. It goes to show you that our solar system in not a rarity in the universe.

Researchers have pined down the mass, radius and density of one of the exoplanets that was discovered two years ago. A red M dwarf only 30 light-years away from earth, This ice-giant circles the star Gliese 436 and it's radius and density are like that of Neptune. It has a 2.6 day orbit around Gliese 436, this hybrid planet gets very close to it's parent-star during it's orbit, like 3 percent of what the Earth's distance is from the Sun making it a hot one. The elongated orbit of the M dwarf suggests that there could be more Planets orbiting Gliese. That is Very cool.

Three of the newly discovered planets circle stars that are 1.6 and 1.9 the times the mass of our Sun. That is pretty darn big. They have been classified as a type A- and F- stars, they are normally difficult to detect due to their fast rotation and pulsating atmospheres.

It seems only like a matter of time before they find a planet like earth out there. I cannot wait; I would be nice to know that we have a place to go when global warming makes it so we cannot live here anymore. Maybe Star Trek wasn't far off.