European Space Agency Launches Planet Finder

via Space.com

The ESA launched a French orbital satellite observatory designed to search out planets orbiting nearby stars. It has a 27 cm (10.6 inch) lens capable of tracking thousands of stars simultaneously. It is believed the satellite will be capable of discovering smaller rocky planets, down to the size of a just a few earths, that have so far eluded planet hunters.

"Flying high above the Earth’s atmosphere, the Convection Rotation and planetary Transits (COROT) satellite [[image] will use a different technique better suited to finding smaller worlds. Called the “transit” technique [image], it will detect extrasolar planets by measuring the dip in starlight their passage creates as they glide across the face of their parent stars."

NASA will launch its own Kepler satellite on a similiar mission in 2008.