Jan 9 2001
From The Space Library
A team of astronomers led by Geoffrey W. Marcy of the University of California at Berkeley and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington announced that, during a long-term project to search for planets that orbit stars residing within 300 light-years of Earth, they had discovered two new planetary systems. Astronomers had already discovered dozens of planetary systems, but Marcy and Butler had found the first and second examples ever observed of systems with more than one planet orbiting a star. Furthermore, one of the planets discovered was so massive that it defied the parameters that scientists had previously used to define planets. In response to the discovery, one of Butler’s colleagues stated simply, “I am astonished.” Marcy admitted that he and his team did not know how to classify their discovery, saying, “The outer companion (of this star) is so massive, between 17 and 40 times the mass of Jupiter, that it seems too large for a conventional planet. We frankly don’t know what name to give it!” (Kathy Sawyer, “A Giant Find Startles Astronomers,” Washington Post, 10 January 2001; Reuters, “Astronomers Find Two New Planetary Systems,” 9 January 2001.)
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