It may be getting old hat for some astronomy researchers, but the discovery of new exoplanets—planets orbiting stars far from our little solar system—can still send a shiver of excitement through space buffs. And today was a jackpot, as European researchers announced that they'd found a trio of "super-Earths" that are only slightly larger than our own planet, and that the three are all orbiting the same star 42 light years away.
They said their findings, presented at a conference in France, suggest that Earth-like planets may be very common. "Does every single star harbour planets and, if yes, how many?" asked Michel Mayor of Switzerland's Geneva Observatory. "We may not yet know the answer, but we are making huge progress towards it," Mayor said in a statement [New Scientist].
Researchers have found almost 300 exoplanets since 1995 by using the same technique.
When a planet orbits its star, it ...
