Earth-like planets may be common
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Earth-like planets orbiting other stars may be far more common than had once been thought, a study suggests.
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BOSTON American scientists say they have discovered two of the smallest planets ever detected outside our solar system - a sign, they said, that they are on the right track in the quest to find Earth-like planets that could potentially support life.
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Most of the extrasolar planets discovered to date are gas giants like Jupiter, but their orbits are either much closer to their parent stars or are highly eccentric. Planet hunters are on the verge of confirming the discovery of Jupiter-size planets with Jupiter-like orbits. Solar systems that contain these "good" Jupiters may harbor habitable Earth-like planets as well.
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In what could be a breakthrough in the search for worlds, an international team of astronomers claims to have made an image of a planetlike object beyond our solar system.
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A group of European-led astronomers has made a photograph of what appears to be a planet orbiting another star. If so, it would be the first confirmed picture of a world beyond our solar system.
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By SETH BORENSTEIN  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Stargazers will get a rare triple planetary treat this weekend with Jupiter, Mercury and Mars appearing to nestle together in the predawn skies.
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HONOLULU-Astronomers have discovered 28 new planets outside of our solar system, increasing to 236 the number of known exoplanets, revealing that planets can exist around a broad spectrum of stellar types-from tiny, dim stars to giants.
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Astronomers have found the first signature of complex organic molecules in the dust cloud around a distant star, suggesting that these building blocks of life may be a common feature of planetary systems.
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The hunt for extraterrestrial life has a new tool: a system of "fingerprints" scientists will use to compare alien worlds with Earth as it has appeared over the eons.
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Astronomers have discovered a new class of planets that take less than a day to whiz round their parent stars.
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More than one-third of the giant planet systems recently detected outside our solar system may harbor Earth-like planets covered in deep global oceans that offer abundant potential for life, according to a new study by scientists associated with NASA's Astrobiology Institute.
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Two separate teams of astronomers find Neptune-size planets beyond our solar system. Earth-like planets are just around the corner, they say. By Amit Asaravala.
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What might be the first directly visible planet orbiting a starlike body other than our sun was reported by scientists from Europe and Los Angeles on Friday.
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We are making dangerous discoveries in space. In April, astronomers found, on our cosmic doorstep, a planet dubbed Gliese 581c. Nestling close to a dim red star, it's a rocky world only a little larger than Earth. Like Earth, it could support liquid water.
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For the next few weeks sky-watchers can spot Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in the same nighttime sky. The planets won't be visible together to the naked eye again until 2016.
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A fabled tenth planet out beyond Neptune, often referred to as Planet X, hasn't    been found despite years of searching. But astronomers involved in the hunt    are beginning to speculate that something like Planet X will be discovered,    along with Y and Z.
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New observations of dust around young stars suggests collisions of large asteroid-like objects and fledgling planets are frequent. But that doesn't likely stop the formation of rocky planets like Earth, a process that may well be common, the results suggest.