Israeli scientist helps discover planet 'very similar to Earth'

The planet, some 500 light years from our solar system, is so distant that it cannot be seen.

By Ofri Ilani

A team of scientists, including an Israeli researcher, announced the discovery Wednesday of a hitherto unknown planet they described as extremely similar to Earth, some 500 light years from our solar system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COROT-7b

The revelation bolsters the theory that the universe holds billions of planets revolving around stars similar to the Earth's sun.

"Progress in research on planets outside our solar system has been tremendous," said Prof. Zvi Mazeh of Tel Aviv University, who participated in the study. "It's amazing to think that 25 years ago, when I just started becoming interested in the field, not a single planet was known outside of our solar system."

"Now we've been able to discover planetary systems very similar to those of the Earth," Mazeh said. "They are just waiting for us to come discover them." The new planet was found almost accidentally while the team was monitoring another distant planet, TYC 4799-1733-1.

The planet is so distant from Earth that it cannot actually be seen; scientists concluded that it exists based on a small black mark it leaves on its parent star every 20.4 hours.

The newly-discovered planet, named CoRoT-7b, is estimated to have a radius twice that of Earth, but a lower mass.

For months, researchers monitored small changes in the revolution of the parent star with the aid of a highly-advanced instrument operated by the European Southern Observatory, a sprawling observatory located in Chile.

The researchers also discovered another planet, CoRoT-7c, orbiting its parent star in cycles of 3 days, 17 hours, with a mass eight times that of the Earth.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israeli-scientist-helps-discover-planet-very-similar-to-earth-1.7761