Astronomers have unveiled a plethora of planets, with more Earth-like ones likely on the way. In separate studies, teams report up to 11 planets orbiting the stars 61 Virginis (with three confirmed), HD 1461 (one confirmed and two more likely) and 23 Lib (four confirmed) and HD 134987 (one more likely.) International teams using the Anglo-Australian Telescope in Australia and the Keck Telescope in Hawaii made the discoveries, some slated for the Astrophysical Journal. Astronomers have detected more than 400 worlds orbiting nearby stars since 1995, according to the Paris Observatory's Extra-solar Planet Catalog.
The finds include two "super-Earths" only 5 and 7.5 times heavier than Earth, the first ones discovered orbiting a sun-like star. The smaller one, "61 Vir b", circles 61 Virginis, and the other, "HD 1461b", circles HD 1461.
“These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars. The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away,” said one team's chief, Steven Vogt of the University of California, Santa Cruz, in a statement.
Next year, astronomers hope to release first results, likely more Jupiter-sized worlds, from NASA's Kepler space telescope, which scans thousands of stars within 3,000 lights years of Earth (one light year is 5.9 trillion miles) for telltale light "dips" caused by planets passing in front of their stars.
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