Skip to navigation | Skip to content  The planet hunters   Most
of the exoplanets found so far like HD 189733b are known as hot
Jupiters.  Most of the exoplanets found so far like this
artist's impression of HD 189733b are known as hot Jupiters.
(Source: NASA)  In a small, air-conditioned room on top of a
mountain in central northern New South Wales, astronomer Chris
Tinney is planet hunting.  Tinney is keeping a close watch on
banks of computer screens that show readouts from the 3.9 metre
Anglo-Australian Telescope. The data he and his colleagues
gather over the next few nights will keep them busy for months,
as they scour it for evidence of exoplanets — planets orbiting
stars other than our own Sun.  "We've been coming here for 12
years now, and have found 30-something planets," says Tinney,
who is based at the University of New South Wales. "You never
know what's going to turn up."  Tinney and his colleagues at the
Anglo-Australian Planet Search program are among a growing
number of groups around the worl