Bodies, bodies everywhere.

Bonanza!

A "bonanza" of new planets has been found at the heart of our galaxy, NASA astronomers announced today. Sixteen potential planets have been detected in the region known as the Galactic Bulge, the mass of stars and hot gas at the center of the Milky Way some 26,000 light-years away. This makes the newfound planets the most distant worlds ever discovered.

Of the 16 newly detected bodies, 7 have been deemed likely planets, with the remaining 9 awaiting confirmation. If all 16 are confirmed, the find would constitute the largest number of new planets detected in a single observation. A team of astronomers discovered the planets during a seven-day survey of the constellation Sagittarius using the Hubble Space Telescope in February 2004.

There have been many announcements of planets discovered outside of our solar system recently, but this one brings some new twists. First, given the bodies' location, it implies that planet formation is spread all across the galaxy, meaning that literally billions of planets are likely to exist just in our galaxy alone. Also, five of the new planets make a full orbit of their stars in less than 24 hours, on in just ten hours. This makes them the fastest ever found and creates a new class of "ultrashort period" planets.