Fact Sheet
Searching With Corot
A European satellite that's designed to hunt for planets in other star systems rocketed into orbit from Kazakhstan on December 27. COROT (COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits) will look for tiny dips in a star's brightness caused by a planet passing in front of it and blocking some of its light. The craft also will study ripples on the surfaces of the stars caused by nuclear processes in their cores. [CNES 2006/D. Ducros]
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