Astrónomers Find 18 New Planets: Discovery Is the Largest Collection of Confirmed Planets Around Stars More Massive Than the Sun

[quote]ScienceDaily (Dec. 2, 2011) — Discoveries of new planets just keep coming and coming. Take, for instance, the 18 recently found by a team of astronomérs led by scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

"It's the largest single announcement of planets in orbit around stárs more massive than the sun, aside from the discoveries made by the Kepler míssion," says John Johnson, assistant professor of astronomy at Caltech and the first author on the team's paper, which was published in the December issue of The Astrophysícal Journal Supplement Series. The Kepler míssion is a space telescope that has so far identified more than 1,200 possible planets, though the majority of those have not yet been confirmed.

Using the Keck Observatory in Hawaii -- with follow-up observations using the McDonald and Fairborn Observatories in Texas and Arizona, respectively -- the researchers survéyed about 300 stárs. They focused on those dubbed "retired" A-type stárs that are more than one and a half times more massive than the sun. These stárs are just past the main stage of their life -- hence, "retired" -- and are now puffing up into what's called a subgiant star.

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