Every Milky Way Star has a Planet!

ESO Image

An international team, including an astronomer from the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), has used the technique of gravitational microlensing to measure how common planets are in the Milky Way. After a six-year search that surveyed millions of stars the team concludes that planets around stars in our Galaxy are the rule rather than the exception.

The results will appear in the journal Nature on 12 January 2012.

Full PDF available here.

Contact:
Dr John Menzies, Senior Astronomer, SAAO
Office: 021 447 0025
Cell: 073 134 2200