Jupiter-sized Planet Found With Small Telescope

A simple 4-inch-diameter telescope, no larger than those that can be purchased at you local Wal-Mart, was all that was used for this discovery.

"This discovery demonstrates that even humble telescopes can make huge contributions to planet searches," says Guillermo Torres of CfA, a co-author on the study.

According to a separate announcement Wednesday (also published here on ATS), using more conventional methods, European astronomers claimed to have discovered yet another new planet which is Earth-like in size.

Though it is this discovery by "the little telescope that could" that has started a buzz among researchers.

Read more about the new discovery on CfA.

[edit on 26-8-2004 by Durden]

Fascinating, though when I first started reading your post I had this mental image of a teenager with his trusty Tasco telesecope spotting Planet X coming our way!!

Seeing this planet and the one reported a few days ago, I'm starting to think that earth is one slowass moving ball of puss.

The one a few days ago was stated to travel around the star in a couple of days, and this new one does the same.

Anyone notice this too?

Maybe its because they move so fast that they are easyer detectable, because they cast a shadow on the star every few days, while slowmoving planets like ours only pas the same point ever 365 days.

So to find planets like our own, year long surveys of the same stars are needed.

Originally posted by AgentSmith
Fascinating, though when I first started reading your post I had this mental image of a teenager with his trusty Tasco telesecope spotting Planet X coming our way!!

After reading the headline again, I agree. But it got your interest though, right?

Originally posted by thematrix
Maybe its because they move so fast that they are easyer detectable, because they cast a shadow on the star every few days, while slowmoving planets like ours only pas the same point ever 365 days.

So to find planets like our own, year long surveys of the same stars are needed.

Yep, that's one of the problems.
They use periodical dimming of the star to find these planets.

www.jklsirius.fi...

[edit on 26-8-2004 by E_T]

the telescope was hardly bought at WAL-MART being on such a planet.

thought the title was kind of cute. nothing more to add to the topic.

originally posted by: Durden
Read more about the new discovery on CfA.

That link is dead.

But yeah, all it takes to discover an exoplanet is a DSLR camera with either a good telephoto lens or a modest amateur telescope. All you need to do is register a regular dip in the brightness of a star.