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Post by Enchant on Mar 20, 2006 2:23:33 GMT -5
Planet hunters have discovered an icy "super-Earth" circling a distant star Since the 1990s, astronomers have discovered some 170 extra-solar, or exoplanets, a planet which orbits a star other than the Sun. There is great interest in finding extrasolar planets that are like the Earth, since these could, in theory, have the right conditions for supporting life. In January, a new planet 5.5 times the mass of the Earth - the smallest yet - became the third exoplanet to be detected by the microlensing technique. Tim Naylor, professor of astrophysics at Exeter University, UK, said microlensing had great promise for the future. "It holds out the promise that we will discover many Earth-sized planets with this technique," he told the BBC News website. How exciting is this? I love the fact that we are exploring the stars. I am so hoping that we will find other life out there and that it is freindly. But most of all I hope that once they start to find a habitable planet that they will start to build throughout. I realoze that I will not experience it in my life time, but perhaps in anouther time...but I have the imagination to imagine it so.....
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