QUB astronomers help find planets (BBC)

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Astronomers from Queen's University Belfast have helped to discover 10 new planets.

The discovery will be announced later at the Royal Astronomical Society's largest ever National Astronomy Meeting, taking place at Queen's.

The extrasolar planets - which orbit around other stars - were found by an international team using cameras in the Canary Islands and South Africa.

Queen's astronomers designed and built the camera used in the find.

The Wide Area Search for Planets (SuperWasp) project uses two sets of cameras to watch for events known as transits, where a planet passes directly in front of a star and blocks out some of its light, so from the earth, the star temporarily appears a little fainter.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7322979.stm