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Extra excitement for exoplanet experiments

A-VB10b_art-640.jpg

Exoplaneteers have finally succeeded in using a technique called astrometry to spot a far off planet.

Astrometry measures the change in the star’s position from side to side, brought about by the gravitational pull of an orbiting planet. It was first used 50 years ago, and almost came up with a planet in 1963 when astronomer Peter van der Kamp claimed, in error, that he’d found two planets going round Barnard’s star.

But now, after 12 years of observation, Steven Pravdo and Stuart Shaklan from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have spotted a planet like Jupiter, but heavier, around the small star VB10 about 20 light years away.

The star is the smallest known to host a planet, and the astronomers say that such a system might be a good place to look for Earth-like planets.

“This method is optimal for finding solar-system configurations like ours that might harbor other Earths," says Pravdo (press release). “Some other exoplanets around larger M-dwarf stars are also similar to our Jupiter, making the stars fertile ground for future Earth searches,” says Shaklan. “Astrometry is best suited to find cold Jupiters around all kinds of stars, and thus to find more planetary systems arranged like our home,” he adds.

Pickup so far includes UPI.com and New Scientist. None of these has any comment from exoplanet scientists that favour other techniques, but perhaps one of these stories in languages other than English will have something that I have missed: Nouvel Obs, Wissenschaft aktuell, ADN.es.

Image: Artists impression of VB10 and VB10b, NASA/JPL-Caltech

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