"Birth of lonely giant planets seen 1,000 light years away"

      Researchers from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC),
      the California Institute of Technology and the Max Planck Institut
      fur Astronomie, co-ordinated by Professor Rafael Rebolo
      (IAC/CSIC), have discovered in the Orion region three giant
      planets and another fifteen bodies, whose planet status could be
      confirmed once analyses are completed. The planets detected are
      reported to have masses between 5 and 15 times the mass of
      Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System. 
 
      It is still premature to affirm how many of these giant planets may 
      be present in the Galaxy. However, if the statistics inferred for
      Orion were representative of the entire Milky Way, hundreds of
      millions of isolated superjupiters would be found populating
      interstellar space.

      According to the researchers involved in the study, there are 
      indications that they could be as numerous as solar-type stars. In the
      Sun's neighbourhood (i.e. in a radius of 20 light years) there could
      be 30 or 40 such objects. Their discovery is clearly a challenge for
      current technologies.

      IAC NEWS RELEASE    Posted: October 8, 2000
 
      http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0010/08planets/

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      note:
      This information casts a new light on theories which were much
      derided - although the critics were clearly ignorant of the facts
      deduced by their author - during the last century or so.

      Find that author's name? One springs to our mind - beginning with
      "V _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _" 
      
      (We're not sure how many letters)  

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