Record-Setting Star

Reported October

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- More than two decades of research has resulted in a major find for astronomy -- a star with a record number of planets, and according to experts, it's just the beginning.

Here on Earth, scientists are always asking the question, are we alone?

"The chance of our planet being the only one seems vanishingly small," John Brewer, an astronomy graduate student at San Francisco State University in California, told Ivanhoe.

In the constellation of cancer, astronomer Debra Fisher and her students discovered that a star called 55 Cancri has something no other star outside of our solar system has -- five planets orbiting it. That's a record!

"Just finding a system that is so full of planets tells us that planet formation is easy," Debra Fischer, astronomer at San Francisco State University, told Ivanhoe.

For students, sharing in a discovery puts stars in their eyes.

"Although you can learn from books, the cutting edge research that's being done now, the new research isn't in the books," Brewer explained. "It's with the research scientists that are performing the studies."

According to Fischer, this fifth planet is special because it orbits at what's called the "goldilocks" distance, where the temperature isn't too hot or too cold to support liquid water, a key characteristic for life.

"The theorists are predicting that there are still other planets around 55 Cancri," Fischer said, "so we're going to keep looking for them there."

This is a quest 41 light years from Earth.

One planet can take 14 years to orbit around a star, so discovering planet number six may take a while, but these students will soon be the researches that keep looking.

The American Astronomical Society and the American Geophysical Union contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Debra Fischer
San Francisco State University
Department of Physics and Astronomy
(415) 338-1697
debra.fischer@gmail.com

Steve Maran
American Astronomical Society
Washington, DC 20009-1231
(202) 328-2010
http://www.aas.org
steve.maran@aas.org

Peter Weiss
American Geophysical Union
Washington, DC 20009-1277
(800) 966-2481
http://www.agu.org
pweiss@agu.org

More the 2 billion people worldwide could get it. Now, researchers are taking aim at the swine flu. We’ll show the latest research on battling this bug

From pigs … to humans … to dogs? Why some pet owners should be concerned about their dog getting the flu

32,000 troops have been wounded in the Iraq War. Now, new technology is helping medics train for the war zone right here at home

Doctors are plugging into the brain’s electrical circuits to offer relief when medications don’t work

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. In one of the largest research studies of its kind, 20,000 patients -- and their tumors -- are helping doctors personalize cancer treatment like never before

Overheating -- it causes dozens of deaths each year on the playing field. Now a simple set of shoulder pads could protect players from the heat

Frustrated by high electric bills? Relief may be blowing in the wind!

Love a garden but don’t have a green thumb? Robots are now helping man in the fields … and you in your own backyard

Technology is taking the harvest indoors! This just isn’t any greenhouse -- It’s a new way of growing that saves energy and money and keeps fresh veggies on your table longer

There’s a danger in the soil our kids play in. Chronic lead poisoning is affecting kids in epidemic proportions

We are going deeper into the sea than ever before! A new robot is showing us marine life we’ve never witnessed

20 years of research has resulted in a major find for astronomy --a star with a record number of plants. It could be the closest thing to Earth that we’ve found yet!