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But it will take far more sensitive instruments to find such planets and determine their orbits, Fischer said. NASA is already planning spacecraft to hunt for them. One, called the Space Interferometry Mission, is scheduled for launch in 2009, and the other, dubbed TPF for Terrestrial Planet Finder, has not yet been scheduled.
Meanwhile, Fischer said she and her planet-hunting colleagues were hoping to obtain a highly sensitive new telescope and detector to be installed at Lick Observatory. It will be able to detect planets with masses equal to 20 Earths.
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Copyright 2001 The San Francisco Chronicle
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