Don Savage

Headquarters, Washington Oct. 15, 2001

(Phone: 202/358-1547)

Amber Jones
National Science Foundation, Arlington, Va.
(Phone: 703/292-8070)

RELEASE: 01-197

MORE PLANETS EMERGE WITH SOLAR SYSTEM-LIKE ORBITS

An international team of astronomers has discovered

eight new extrasolar planets, bringing to nearly 80 the
number of planets found orbiting nearby stars.

The latest discoveries, supported by NASA and the National

Science Foundation (NSF), uncovered more evidence of what the
astronomers are calling a new class of planets. These planets
have circular orbits similar to the orbits of planets in our
solar system.

At least two of the recently detected planets have

approximately circular orbits. This characteristic is shared
by two planets (one of them the size of Jupiter) previously
detected by the same team around 47 Ursae Majoris, a star in
the Big Dipper constellation, and one around the star Epsilon
Reticulum. The majority of the extrasolar planets found to
date are in an elongated, or "eccentric," orbit.

The further a planet lies from its star, the longer it takes
to complete an orbit and the longer astronomers have to
observe to detect it.

"As our search continues, we're finding planets in larger and

larger orbits," said Steve Vogt of the Lick Observatory,
University of California at Santa Cruz. "Most of the
planetary systems we've found have looked like very distant
relatives of the solar system -- no family likeness at all.
Now we're starting to see something like second cousins.

"In a few years' time we could be finding brothers and

sisters," he added.

"This result is very exciting," said Anne Kinney, director of

NASA's Astronomy and Physics Division at Headquarters in
Washington. "To understand the formation and evolution of
planets and planetary systems we need a large sample of
planets to study. This result, added to others in the recent
past, marks the beginning of an avalanche of data which will
help to provide the answers."

The recently detected planets range in mass from 0.8 to 10

times the mass of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar
system. They orbit their stars at distances ranging from
about 0.07 AU (astronomical unit, or the distance from the
Sun to Earth), to three AU.

The astronomers -- from the United States, Australia, Belgium

and the United Kingdom -- are searching the nearest 1,200
stars for planets similar to those in our solar system,
particularly Jupiter-like gas giants. Their findings will
help astronomers assess the solar system's place in the
galaxy and whether planetary systems like our own are common
or rare.

For most of their discoveries, the astronomers have used the

Keck 10-meter telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii; the Lick three-
meter in Santa Cruz, Calif.; and the 3.9-meter Anglo-
Australian Telescope in New South Wales, Australia. To find
evidence of planets, the astronomers use a high-precision
technique developed by Paul Butler and Geoff Marcy of the
University of California at Berkeley to measure how much a
star "wobbles" in space as it is affected by a planet's
gravity.

The team also receives support from the UK and Australian

governments.

-end-