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Link....<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p><b>Massive Transiting Planet with 31-hour Year Found Around Distant Star</b><br /><br />Flagstaff, Ariz.– An international team of astronomers with the Trans-atlantic Exoplanet Survey today announce the discovery of their third planet, TrES-3. The new planet was identified by astronomers looking for transiting planets – that is, planets that pass in front of their home star – using a network of small automated telescopes in Arizona, California, and the Canary Islands. TrES-3 was discovered in the constellation Hercules about 10 degrees west of Vega, the brightest star in the summer skies.<br /><br />"TrES-3 is an unusual planet as it orbits its parent star in just 31 hours!," said Georgi Mandushev, Lowell Observatory astronomer. "That is to say, the year on this planet lasts less than one and a third days. It is also a very massive planet – about twice the mass of the solar system's biggest planet, Jupiter – and is one of the planets with the shortest known periods."<br /><br />The new planet TrES-3 was first noticed by Lowell Observatory's Planet Search Survey Telescope (PSST), set up and operated by Edward Dunham and Georgi Mandushev. The Sleuth telescope, maintained by David Charbonneau (CfA) and Francis O'Donovan (Caltech), at Caltech's Palomar Observatory also observed transits of TrES-3, confirming the initial detections. TrES-3 is about 800 light-years distant and because it is so close to its host star, it is very hot, about 1,500 degrees Kelvin.<br /><br />"TrES-3 will be an intriguing object to study more deeply, said Edward Dunham, Lowell Observatory instrument scientist. "For example, its tight orbit causes it to be illuminated very strongly. This may make it possible to measure the variation in reflected light as it goes through its phases. This will tell us how reflective its atmo</p></blockquote> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>