International Team Discovers Seven New Planets Outside Our Solar System

Still mourning the loss of Pluto as a planet? If so, we have not one, but seven new ones to comfort you.

The planets were discovered using the sophisticated CoRoT (short for convection, rotation, and planetary transit) telescope that was launched in December 2006 by the National Space Studies Center in France, CNRS French Laboratories, several other European partners, Brazil, and Israel. The planets were discovered by measuring the black spots created as each planet passed in front of its sun.

Despite the unfathomable distance between these seven worlds and our own, the team of scientists was able to estimate the size, mass, and density of the planets. Based on their measurements, it was concluded that each planet was quite different. Professor Tsvi Mazeh of Tel Aviv University’s Physics and Astronomy School, the Israeli of the group, explained that “each planet is an additional piece of information for solving the riddle of the creation and development of planets.”

Professor Mazeh continued, “We are like Columbus, who sailed his ships beyond the horizon to worlds that excited the imagination. But unlike Columbus, who found countries whose nature and weather were similar to what he left behind, in our case the planets are so different and so distant. Surprises beyond our telescopes can rise above our imaginations.”

For the nerds out there who want more information on the technology used to detect the planets and more, see the Jerusalem Post’s article on the discovery here.

Photo courtesy of TopTechWriter.US on flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.

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