On January 25 at 16:00 Universal time (08:00 Pacific), the European Space Agency (ESA) will make a major extrasolar planet announcement.
Frustratingly, that is all they are saying (“embargoed” generally means the press get advance notice, but they aren’t allowed to release any information until after the announcement– I have not received any other info, however). We’ve seen many big releases in the past about extarsolar planets, from multiple planets in one system to the lowest mass planet found, about half the mass of Uranus (a planet orbiting the nearby star Gliese 876).
I’ve chatted with astronomer-friends about stuff like this, and most of us agree that the next major announcement would have to be pretty big, but it’s hard to say what it could be. I guess we’ll find out Wednesday morning!