Bigger yet

 
Published: Thursday 15 March 2001

The scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, US have found two new planetary systems. In one of the systems, 123 light-years from Earth, two planetary bodies are circling a star. One of the two may be the biggest planet known to us. The head of the planet-searching team, Geoffrey Marcy, said a star called HD168443 in the constellation Serpens, was being circled by a planet 17 times more massive than Jupiter. It is the largest planetary-like object to be found beyond our own Solar System. In the second system, two planets were found orbiting a star in a gravitationally synchronised 'dance'.

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