EMBARGOED UNTIL: 1:00 pm (EDT) May 18, 2006

Donna Weaver
Space Telescope science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
(Phone: 410-338-4493; E-mail: dweaver@stsci.edu)

Peter McCullough
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
(Phone: 410-338-5068; E-mail: pmcc@stsci.edu)

PRESS RELEASE NO.: STScI-PR06-22

ASTRONOMERS USE INNOVATIVE TECHNIQUE TO FIND EXTRASOLAR PLANET

An international team of professional and amateur astronomers, using
simple off-the-shelf equipment to trawl the skies for planets outside
our solar system, has hauled in its first "catch." The astronomers
discovered a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting a Sun-like star 600
light-years from Earth in the constellation Corona Borealis. The team,
led by Peter McCullough of the Space Telescope Science Institute in
Baltimore, Md., includes four amateur astronomers from North America
and
Europe.

This artist's impression shows a dramatic close-up of the extrasolar
planet, called XO-1b, passing in front of a Sun-like star 600
light-years from Earth. The Jupiter-sized planet is in a tight four-day

orbit around the star.

To see and read more about this research on the Web, visit:

http://hubblesite.org/news/2006/22
http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/news/
http://media.rice.edu/media/Default.asp
http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/news/releases/browse.php
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/

The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore is operated for NASA
by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc.,
Washington.