Word: planetsized
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The discovery, published in the British journal Nature last week, shows that ground-based technologies are capable of finding such planets.
But extraordinary may be too understated a descriptor for the discovery reported on Wednesday in the journal Nature: an international team led by Harvard astronomer David Charbonneau has spotted a "super-Earth," a planet 2.7 times bigger than Earth, circling a dim red star called GJ 1214, just 40 light...
While the new planet, dubbed GJ 1214b, is too big to be considered Earth-like, it comes pretty close. But GJ 1214b's relatively compact size - smaller than the vast majority of planets identified so far - is only one reason for astronomers' enthusiasm. Another is GJ 1214b's likelihood of...
They also did it fast. "We thought it would take us two years to find something like GJ 1214b," says Charbonneau. "It took just six months. Either we got really lucky, or these planets are common." If they are, then it wouldn't be surprising for astronomers to find planets...
Charbonneau's group isn't the only one looking. An international consortium of observatories just announced the discovery of several other super-Earths around Sun-like stars, though these new planets are far too hot to sustain life and too far away to be able to study. Separately, NASA's...