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Planetary pipsqueaks

8 April 2000

Two planets smaller than Saturn have been spotted circling nearby stars,
astronomers said last week, raising hopes that they will eventually find planets
similar to Earth. So far the few dozen planets spotted outside our Solar System
are all at least as massive as Jupiter. But the new planets, spotted using the
Keck telescope in Hawaii, have masses less than a third that of Jupiter. They
orbit very close to their stars, racing around with periods of around 3 and 75
days.

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