A Six-Pack of Planets Defies Conventional Wisdom : Discovery News: "When NASA Kepler Space Observatory scientists announced the discovery of over 1,200 planets around other stars last week, my colleague, veteran science writer Dennis Overbye, wrote in the New York Times that astronomers have broken open a Milky Way piñata and more planets fell out than they could imagine!
But a less publicized part of this story I'd call: Astronomers Open a 'Six-Pack.' That is, a family of six planets in whirling blender orbits encircle a star called Kepler-11.
Or perhaps a better characterization is 'six-packed' because this collection of planets whip around their sun-like star in very tight racetrack orbits, five of which are crammed inside the radius of Venus's orbit about the sun."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment