THE BIG BROTHER PLANETS ; Earth's New Family
Posted on: Thursday, 2 September 2004, 06:00 CDT
ASTRONOMERS have discovered two planets they have branded Earth's big brothers.
The planets beyond our solar system are 10 to 20 times the size of Earth - but are far smaller than any previously detected.
And experts in the US said they make up a new class of Neptune- sized 'extrasolar' planets.
The findings suggest they were formed through accumulation of rocky bodies - just like Earth.
Over the past decade, as many as 135 planets have been found but all of them are giant gas planets.
Co-discoverer, Dr Geof-frey Marcy, of the University of California, said: 'We can't quite see the Earth-like planets yet, but we're seeing their big brothers.'
Experts used 'radial velocity' in which a planet's gravitational tug is detected by the wobble it produces in the parent star.
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