The New Nation - Internet Edition

PTI, London

European astronomers have identified an exoplanet, about the same size as Jupiter, orbiting a star slightly more massive than the Sun, a finding that will give valuable insight into star-planet interactions.

An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet beyond the solar system. The discovery of extra solar planets sharpens the question of whether some might support extraterrestrial life. As of July 3, 2008, 307 exoplanets have been detected and confirmed.

The vast majority were detected through various indirect methods rather than actual imaging. A team of European astronomers, working with C.O.R.O.T., found that C.O.R.O.T.-exo-4b takes 9.2 days to orbit its star, the longest period for any transiting exoplanet ever found.

This is the first transiting exoplanet found with such a peculiar combination of mass and period of rotation, the Science Daily online said Saturday. Launched in December 2006, COROT is the first space-based mission designed to search for exoplanets.

Located outside Earth's atmosphere, the satellite is designed to detect rocky exoplanets almost as small as Earth.

After just 555 days in orbit, the European mission has now observed more than 50,000 stars and is adding significantly to our knowledge of the fundamental workings of stars.

The big surprise for the European astronomers was that that the star, which is slightly larger than our Sun, is rotating at the same pace as the planet's period of revolution.