As reported by MSNBC, the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) in New South Wales, Australia detected a large planet orbiting HD 70642, a sun-like star situated 90 light-years from Earth out toward the Puppis constellation. “It’s absolutely wonderful,” Alan Penny, of Britain’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, said. “Up to now we’ve seen a whole menagerie of planets orbiting their stars. But when it comes to finding another Jupiter at a Jupiter-like distance from its star, this is the first one.”
The planet circling HD 70642 is about twice as massive as Jupiter and orbits its star from a distance of 3.3 astronomical units (AU), which would place it somewhere between Mars and Jupiter in our solar system. What sets HD 70642’s giant planet apart from other extrasolar worlds — more than 100 of which have been found – is its orbit. The newly found planet travels around its star on a path that, like Jupiter, is roughly circular, meaning there’s room for smaller, Earth-like planets to orbit HD 70642 without the danger of being flung out of the planetary system.
“I think the hunt for these planets is the greatest adventure in astronomy right now,” Penny said.
Oh, and the answer to our little quiz? As discussed here, the first shot is the Hubble one.