Discovery
Like the majority of known extrasolar planets, 47 Ursae Majoris b was discovered by detecting the changes in its star's radial velocity as the planet's gravity pulls the star around. This was achieved by observing the Doppler shift of the spectrum of 47 Ursae Majoris. After the discovery of the first extrasolar planet around a Sun-like star, 51 Pegasi b, astronomers Geoffrey Marcy and R. Paul Butler searched through their observational data for signs of extrasolar planets and soon discovered two: 47 Ursae Majoris b and 70 Virginis b. The discovery of 47 Ursae Majoris b was announced in 1996.
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Famous quotes containing the word discovery:
“The virtues of society are vices of the saint. The terror of reform is the discovery that we must cast away our virtues, or what we have always esteemed such, into the same pit that has consumed our grosser vices.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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