Detection of Extrasolar Planets by Gravitational Lensing

[sheeny]

FYI: an article from the latest edition of nature (one of the non-premium subscriber ones!;) ).

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v439/n7075/pdf/439400a.pdf (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v439/n7075/pdf/439400a.pdf)

Enjoy,

Al.

[rumples riot]

Interesting article, thanks for posting the link.

[janoskiss]

The diagram explains clearly how the gravity lensing technique works. Not exactly for your average amateur, but the article says the pros can detect down to Neptune mass planets (17 Earth masses). Big gas giants like Jupiter (300 Earths) should be piece of cake. Of course the technique relies on chance event of star and planet passing very close in front of a background star, but the universe is full of chance events. :)

[Greg Bryant]

It's a fascinating discovery indeed. Great that Australian and NZ astronomers were among the international collaboration that contributed to the detection and follow-up.

http://www.austskyandtel.com.au/news20060126_Low_Mass_Exoplanet.htm

For years, I've maintained a database of the extrasolar planet discoveries. Within the next decade, though, there's going to be an explosion in the number of planets known, as orbiting observatories are launched to search for them.