Extrasolar Planets Update
TNRTB Archive – Retained for reference information
American astronomers have found more evidence that the solar system is uniquely designed for the support of life. The team discovered five new extrasolar planets. With these five, the list of discovered extrasolar planets orbiting stars of similar mass and age as the Sun now includes 153 planets and 134 planetary systems. The prediction from a naturalistic perspective that at least several of these systems would prove to be solar system analogues is false. The Jupiter-sized planets that have been discovered either orbit their stars at too close a distance or with too great an eccentricity (ellipticity) for any planet in the same system to remain in the life-support zone. Thus, it appears that the more we learn about extrasolar planets, the more evidence we uncover that we live in a planetary system uniquely designed to provide us with a good habitat.
- Geoffrey W. Marcy et al., “Five New Extrasolar Planets,” Astrophysical Journal 619 (2005): 570-84.
- https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/ApJ/journal/issues/ApJ/v619n1/60844/brief/60844.abstract.html
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