New planet found

[matt]

Apologies if this is old news.

Just picked this up on the 'wire' at work. I'll try and find more details when I have time

"A new planet has been found, outside the recognised solar system.

Astronomers says its three thousand light years away and three times the size of earth.

Experts say its cold and dark nature means any sign of life would be improbable."

I know. Just another planet discovery

I wonder what the latest total is now, outside the solar system?

[OneOfOne (Trevor)]

The exo planet count, I believe, is now getting very close to 300! I was just reading an article on the Sky&Tel site about a paper presented recently that estimates that small earthsize planets should out number "Jupiters" by about 3 to 1, so that makes around 1000 planets out there!

[AlexN]

Of the planets outside our solar system, how many do we know of that are in close enough proximity to a nearby star that could hold life?? Sorry if my question is impossible to answer, I dont know much about extra solar planets, but would love to!

[renormalised (Carl)]

I think, for memory, they've found two of reasonable size (ie: 1-10 earths in size) orbiting in their sun's habitable zones.... that's of what I can remember. There maybe more.