Fourth Exoplanet Found in System |
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Written by spacetravel.org
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Saturday, 07 May 2005 22:53 |
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A fourth planet has been found orbiting the pulsar B1257+12. In 1992, this pulsar became the first object outside the solar system to be found to have a planet around it. Three terrestrial-sized planets were eventually found orbiting the pulsar. Alex Wolszczan of Pennsylvania State University, the discoverer of these three planets, and his colleague Maciej Konacki of Caltech have now discovered a fourth planet in the system. This new planet, called Planet D, orbits 6 times further than the third planet. Its mass is only 4 percent of the mass of EarthÂ’s moon, making it the smallest exoplanet that has been discovered so far.
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