Most distant planet: found. (Space/Planet Hunting).

OGLE-TR-56b is the most distant planet ever seen by astronomers. They say the gas giant--like our solar system's Jupiter--is circling a star 5,000 light-years away from Earth.

But unlike Jupiter, which has a surface temperature of 390[degrees]C (754[degrees]F), OGLE orbits so close to its star (or sun) that its surface temperature is 1,650[degrees]C (3,000[degrees]F). It's so hot, scientists think the planet's clouds may rain liquid iron. And OGLE zips around its sun so quickly, one "year" elapses in just 29 Earth hours--while a "day" there might last forever! "One side of the planet always faces the star, as one side of the moon always faces Earth," says Saurabh Jha, one of OGLE's discoverers.

To find OGLE, researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics compared many images of the same section of sky, looking for stars that dim on a regular schedule. Dimming hints that a distant planet might be transiting, or passing in front of, the star. "Right now the best bet for spotting terrestrial (Earth-like) planets is the transit technique," Jha says.

But when NASA launches the space-based telescope Kepler in 2007, it will scan the cosmos without the blur of Earth's atmosphere. Is a planet discovery boom ahead? Stay tuned!