Astronomers Find Star's Fifth Planet
Astronomers have discovered a fifth planet orbiting a star, which is only 41 light years from the Earth.
This discovery means thats the system, 55 Cancri, has more known planets than any other system apart from our own Solar System.
There are currently around 250 'extrasolar' planets, many of which, including this latest one, have been discovered by a group led by Professor Geoff Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley. This new one is a gas giant which has the mass of 45 Earths. Astronomers believe that this system may be similar to our own, in that the star is of a similar age and mass to our own Sun.
None of the planets around 55 Cancri are visible to even using the 2 metre Faulkes Telescopes, but the parent star is visible using binoculars or a small telescope in the constellation of Cancer. 55 Cancri is too bright to image with the FT with a magnitude of V ~ 6.
