Space Probe Finds Four New Worlds

Dec. 20, 2007 -- Corot, a French-funded probe designed to detect worlds orbiting other stars, has found four such candidates in its first year of operation, its mission chiefs said here on Thursday.

Data sent back by the $244-million-dollar spacecraft has yielded two confirmed finds of so-called exoplanets and two probable finds, they told a press conference.

"Corot is performing exceptionally well," said the program's director of science, Annie Baglin, of the Paris-Meudon Observatory.

Pronounced "coro," the unmanned craft lifted off on December 27, 2006 from a Russian base in Kazakhstan, bearing a 12-inch telescope and two cameras.

Its prime goal is to look for planets that are made of rock rather than gas, which is the first requirement along with liquid water and a moderate temperature for life as we know it.

The first exoplanet was spotted in 1995 by astronomers at the Geneva Observatory, who inferred its existence from light from the neighboring star that "wobbled" in response to the passing planet's gravitational pull.

So far, 221 exoplanets have been detected, according to the U.S. tallykeeper, although the Corot mission officials said the latest total was 270.

Almost all of the finds have been of uninhabitable gas giants, rather than solid planets.

And they orbit at ranges that are outside the so-called "Goldilocks zone," where the temperature is not too hot, not too cold, but just right to let liquid water exist.

The two confirmed finds by Corot, called Corot-exo-1b and Corot-exo-2b, both fall into the gas giant category, but one of the "probables" could be a rocky planet if preliminary calculations of its density are confirmed.

Related Links:

Corot Homepage

Howstuffworks.com: Planet-Hunting

Irene Klotz's blog: Space Diary