... new set of astronomical observations, it may be that one of the 400 exoplanets thus far discovered is not an exoplanet after all. The celestial body, which lies some six parsecs away from our solar system, was detected ... (JPL) expert Steven Pravdo, said at the time that the star, known as VB10, was being orbited by an exoplanet roughly six times the mass of Jupiter. The find raised new hopes that ...

... exoplanets we've found scream around close to their suns, and have temperatures of between 500-800 degrees Celsius. At around 29 AU from its sun GJ 758, a near identical twin to our own, the exoplanet is roughly where Neptune orbits. However Jupiter, which produces more heat than it receives from the Sun, is nowhere near this hot. However, the mass of GJ 758B is between 10-40 times that of ...

... . Astrometry measures the side-to-side motion of a star on the sky to see whether any unseen bodies might be orbiting it. Using this method is difficult and requires very precise measurements over long periods of time. Using astrometry to look for exoplanets has been around for 50 years, but it hadn’t bagged a verified exoplanet – until, astronomers thought, earlier this year.

NAOJ: The first observations with the world's newest planet-hunter instrument on the Subaru Telescope, HiCIAO (High Contrast Instrument for the Subaru next generation Adaptive Optics), have revealed a companion to the Sun-like star GJ 758. With an estimated mass of 10-40 times Jupiter's mass, GJ 758 B is either a giant planet or a lightweight brown dwarf. read more

... Bruce Gary prompted me to pay a return visit the Exoplanet Transit Database (ETD) which is maintained by the variable star ... timing variations (TTVs)  has become something of a holy grail in the exoplanet community. A perturbing body will also produce changes in the depth and ... TLC project) to stay on top of all the opportunities. The Exoplanet Transit Database maintains a catalog of all publicly ...

The newly discovered exoplanet orbits the star Gliese 667 C, which belongs to a triple system. The six Earth-mass exoplanet circulates around its low-mass host star at a distance equal to only 1/20th of the Earth-Sun distance. The host star is a companion to two other low-mass stars, which are seen here in the distance. Credit: ESO. Astronomers have discovered hundreds of Jupiter-like planets in ...

... , the tally of new exoplanets found by HARPS is now at 75, out of about 400 known exoplanets, the organization said, "cementing HARPS's position as the world's foremost exoplanet hunter." The 75 planets are in 30 planetary systems, the European Southern Observatory said. "HARPS is a unique, extremely high precision instrument that ideal for discovering alien worlds," ...

... Planetary Microlensing Events, astro-ph A Spitzer Census of Transitional Protoplanetary Disks with AU-Scale Inner Holes, astro-ph Masses and Orbital Constraints for the OGLE-2006-BLG-109Lb,c Jupiter/Saturn Analog Planetary System, astro-ph ThReT: A new survey for Extrasolar Planetary transits at Mt. Holomon, Greece, astro-ph Exoplanet Characterization and the Search for Life, astro-ph

... grow as we match not only system architecture, but formed planet mass and true distance from the primary with host star characteristics for a wide variety of host stars and exoplanet masses. We propose that a series of FGS astrometric observations with demonstrated 1 millisecond of arc per-observation precision can establish the degree of coplanarity and component true masses for four ...

I spent my research time today reading Bretthorst's book on Bayesian spectrum analysis. It is a beautiful and useful document; I think there will be many ideas in this book useful to the exoplanet problem. Roweis pointed me to this book; Yavin made me read it. One small comment on this excellent book, which I am compelled by God and Man to make: Bretthorst, like Jaynes, is a believer in ...

... to be two separate searches: the search for exoplanets that may harbor life and the search for dark energy. In an effort to develop 'robust, low-risk missions that maximize the scientific return,' the article analyzes how, without any changes, a space-based dark energy telescope could also check for microlensing events indicating an exoplanet." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

... are using a strategy to merge what used to be two separate searches: the search for exoplanets that may harbor life and the search for dark energy. In an effort to develop 'robust, low-risk missions that maximize the scientific return,' the article analyzes how, without any changes, a space-based dark energy telescope could also check for microlensing events indicating an exoplanet."

... in one of the ion engines aboard the Asteroid Explorer "HAYABUSA" as reported on November 9, 2009. Extra-Solar Planets Discovery Of A Retrograde Or Highly Tilted Exoplanet (16 November 2009) Two teams of astronomers have found that extrasolar planet HAT-P-7b, discovered in 2008, has a retrograde or highly tilted orbit. Mobile Deployable Communications ...

... doubtless find lots of things, possibly extraterrestrial life ... I am a little more concerned about the underlying agenda in some cases. NASA could be undermining its chances via Darwin worship. Some more exoplanet stories: Does our solar system occupy a unique position in the universe or just an ordinary one? Rare? Solar systems like ours are rare? Astronomer argues that we can ...

01 Ultraviolet - Kites (Pete Gooding Remix) 02 Exoplanet - Through the Land of Talking Lavalamps and Purple Wildebeest 03 Aleksey Beloozerov - October (Solid Sky and Liquid Ground Remix) 04 VG vs. Dave Sullivan - Cloudsurfers (East Cafe Remix) 05 LoQuai - Invisible Form 06 Incognet and Jeter Avio feat Natasha Yakovleva - Something (Ad Brown Remix) 07 Enrique Echd - Something ...