Word: sized
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...constellation Ophiuchus. "It's spectacular," says Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, who is the world's most prolific planet hunter and is credited with discovering 70 of the first 100 exoplanets. "It's a top-of-the-top discovery in the quest for Earth-size planets." (See the top 50 space moments since Sputnik...
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 bearing the stuff of life: water...
Astronomers were further able to estimate the planet's makeup by calculating its size, based on the amount of light that GJ 1214b blocked when it passed in front of its star, as well as its mass (6.6 times Earth's mass), based on the wobble in the wavelength of starlight caused by GJ 1214b's gravitational pull on its star. That analysis revealed the new planet's density: about one-third of Earth's. Because water has a much lower density than rock, astronomers figured that the "most plausible scenario is a planet made mostly of water, with...
...dwarfs are so small, moreover, that an Earth-size planet casts a relatively big silhouette as it passes in front of it, making the telltale dimming of starlight easy to spot. It's so easy, in fact, that Charbonneau didn't even need a giant telescope to see it. Instead, he got away with the kind of scope a serious backyard amateur might use. In other words, says Charbonneau, "we did it on the cheap...
...however, the trust board briefly toyed in 2007 with the idea of selling its stock to Wrigley, famous for its chewing-gum brand, but backed down within hours of closing the deal. State and federal authorities had tried to block the sale, in part because of concerns about the size of a combined Wrigley-Hershey company. Residents of the town of Hershey, meanwhile, expressed outrage and even convinced a local judge to delay the sale, saying it would cause "irreparable harm" to the community...