Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to 8 More Extra-Solar Planets Discovered

Re: 8 More Extra-Solar Planets Discovered

We're seeing longer orbits, periods measured in years. This was expected; it just takes a multiple of an orbital period to gather conclusive evidence. Although the site claims more systems with circular orbits recently detected, I note that the vast majority of systems discovered have elliptical orbits. This tells me that there are a couple of different processes occuring during planetary system formation and one or the other tends to dominate. We really do need data on multiple planet systems and systems with Saturn period orbits before we can say what is "normal", circular orbit systems like ours or systems with strongly elliptical orbits. Using current techniques, this will take several decades. That's why I really push for missions like the relatively inexpensive Kepler mission as a precursor to the expensive, ambitious and likely to be delayed TPF mission targeted for next decade.

-philw

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