With the discovery of 60 new exoplanets, we still have a lot to explore.
Dr. Mikko Tuomi of the University of Hertfordshire, along with an international team of astronomers, have recently discovered 60 new extrasolar planets orbiting stars close to Earth’s Solar System. Included in the findings of this amazing achievement is an additional amount of evidence supporting the existence of another 54 planets.
With the discovery of 60 new exoplanets, we still have a lot to explore.
Astronomers are taking specific interest in Gliese 411b, a super-Earth with a rocky surface located in the fourth nearest star system from our native Sun. One impact made by this discovery is support for the thesis that all the stars nearest out native Sun have planets orbiting them.
These historical findings were made after a 20-year observatory period by US astronomers using the Keck-I telescope in Hawaii. Astronomers obtained almost 61,000 individual observations of 1,600 stars. This information should prove vital in our understanding of how planetary systems are formed.
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