A new class of planets that whiz through their orbits in only 10 hours has been discovered by astronomers who found 16 planets outside the solar system and believe there could be six billion Jupiter-sized planets in the Milky Way. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers found that five of the newly discovered planets are extremely fast and have not been found in any nearby searches. Called ultra-short-period planets, they appear to be, like Jupiter, low-density gas giants that orbit stars smaller than our sun in less than an Earth day. The shortest orbit lasts only 10 hours. The findings will be published on Thursday in the scientific journal Nature.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
[cosmos] the day passes so quickly
A new class of planets that whiz through their orbits in only 10 hours has been discovered by astronomers who found 16 planets outside the solar system and believe there could be six billion Jupiter-sized planets in the Milky Way. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers found that five of the newly discovered planets are extremely fast and have not been found in any nearby searches. Called ultra-short-period planets, they appear to be, like Jupiter, low-density gas giants that orbit stars smaller than our sun in less than an Earth day. The shortest orbit lasts only 10 hours. The findings will be published on Thursday in the scientific journal Nature.
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