[X] My Assistant

[belleraphon1]

All...

see news from the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia for 06/16/2008
http://exoplanet.eu/

No other details except for the star and planet parameters...

The Extra Solar Super Earths conference is under away in Nantes this week (06/16/2008).
http://www.sciences.univ-nantes.fr/geol/SuperEarths2008/

I am sure we will hear more.....

Stay tuned... what a time...

Craig

[belleraphon1]

All....

There is definite bias in each of the detection methods now used. The RV and Transit methods are biased towards close in and higher mass planets (close in, heavier, and bigger is easier to find).

For those who want to dig deeper I find the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopeidia links are a great resource.
The Bibliography list is a treasure trove on this subject and the database is great:

Link http://exoplanet.eu/

And the Systemic site at http://www.oklo.org/ is a great source of news and data.

For a look at the USA and ESA plans for ultimately finding and characterizing "Earth-like" planets see these
reports..

NSF Working Group
http://www.nsf.gov/mps/ast/aaac/exoplanet_...inal_report.pdf (25MB)

ESA - DARWIN
http://fr.arxiv.org/abs/0805.1873 (2.3MB)

In 15 years .... will we detect the glint of strange oceans on worlds now unknown to us? What a prospect.

Craig