Post date: Feb 02, 2011 8:20:30 PM
NASA's Kepler space telescope spots odd new solar system with five planets orbiting close to a distant star. Jane Ross reports.
USA-NEW SOLAR SYSTEM - Astronomers have spotted a strange new solar system with small "puffy" planets packed in close orbit to their sun.
The discovery is mystifying astronomers and illustrates just how much variety is possible in the universe.
Five of the planets were found to be in a closer orbit to their star than any planet in Earth's solar system.
The discovery was published in the journal Nature and announced by NASA, which named the system Kepler-11, after the orbiting space telescope that spotted it.SOUNDBITE: NASA scientist Jack Lissauer saying (English):
"With six transiting planets, five so close to their star, and getting the size and masses of these five fairly small worlds, there's only one word that I can think of that adequately describes the new finding we're announcing today - supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."
The star resembles Earth's own sun but the planets are among the smallest ever seen outside our solar system.
Astronomers are certain there are Earthlike planets out there and say they can be found if the telescope designed to spot them can orbit Earth long enough to collect the data.
Jane Ross, Reuters