Science and Space

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New "super Earth" detected

 European astronomers have found one of the smallest planets known outside our solar system, a world about 14 times the mass of our own around a star much like the Sun. It could be a rocky planet with a thin atmosphere, a sort of "super Earth," the researchers said today. But this is no typical Earth. It completes its tight orbit in less than 10 days, compared to the 365 required for our year. Its daytime face would be scorched.

No planet so small has ever been detected around a normal star. And the finding reveals a solar system more similar to our own than anything found so far.

The star is like our Sun and just 50 light-years away.

Most of the more than 120 planets found beyond our solar system are gaseous worlds as big or larger than Jupiter, mostly in tight orbits that would not permit a rocky planet to survive.

posted by: kyawoo at 20:27 | link | comments |
astronomy

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