Two Planet Discoveries (four planets)

With the publication of Science today, we get two announcements of the discovery of exoplanets. Hubble has announced the discovery of a planet around the star Fomalhaut (suspected in 2005 but now confirmed) and a team using the Gemini and Keck telescopes have found three planets around the star HR8799. Go over to Sarah for more details.

Funnily enough I was looking at a picture of Fomalhaut's dust disc at Halloween a couple of weeks ago. I suggest the new planet orbiting Fomalhaut be named Planet Sauron.

Fomalhaut
Image taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the newly discovered planet, Fomalhaut b, orbiting its parent star, Fomalhaut. CREDIT: NASA, ESA and P. Kalas (University of California, Berkeley, USA)

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Posted in astro blog by Stuart on Thursday 13th Nov 2008 (20:46 GMT) | 4 Comments | Permalink

Comments: Two Planet Discoveries

gravatarThe word "awesome" is rather over-used .. but maybe its justified this time ...

Posted by Andy Lawrence on Thursday 13th Nov 2008 (21:16 UTC)

gravatarIndeed. Not just a brown dwarf orbiting a slightly bigger brown dwarf. Thanks for the nod Stu :-)

Posted by Sarah on Thursday 13th Nov 2008 (22:27 UTC)

gravatarSauron! That's perfect! I vote for this name right now!

Posted by Ian Musgrave on Sunday 16th Nov 2008 (08:50 UTC)

gravatarNice to hear from you Ian. Who do we need to contact to suggest the name? :)

Posted by Stuart on Sunday 16th Nov 2008 (21:11 UTC)

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