THE past two decades have seen astronomers' catalogue of planets expand over two-hundredfold, as new techniques and better telescopes have found more than 2,000 of them orbiting stars other than the sun. But in the solar system itself, the list of planets has actually shrunk--Pluto having been downgraded from that status in 2006. The number of the sun's planetary companions has thus fallen from nine to eight. Now, a pair of astronomers from the California Institute of Technology think they have ...
THE past two decades have seen astronomers' catalogue of planets expand over two-hundredfold, as new techniques and better telescopes have found more than 2,000 of them orbiting stars other than the sun. But in the solar system itself, the list of planets has actually shrunk--Pluto having been downgraded from that status in 2006. The number of the sun's planetary companions has thus fallen from nine to eight. Now, a pair of astronomers from the California Institute of Technology think they have ...
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