Posted on 01/06/2014 8:16:40 PM PST by SunkenCiv
The planet, named KOI-314c, is the lightest planet to have both its mass and physical size measured, and it is the first Earth-mass planet to have been located as it passes its host star...
The newfound planet is in close orbit with its host star, a red dwarf, which it orbits every 23 days.
At 220 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature on the planet, which is about 200 light years away, is too hot for life as we know it to exist.
The planet is only about 30 percent denser than water, the astronomers report, which suggests that the gaseous planet is has an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium that is hundreds of miles thick...
To mass this new planet, astronomers used the technique known as transit timing variations, which is not typically used to learn the mass of planets. With this method - which can only be used when two or more planets orbit a star - astronomers can measure pulling forces that lead to slight changes in how planets transit, or pass in front of, their star...
Although astronomers are happy to have found another planet, their original mission with the Kepler data was to find moons.
"When we noticed this planet showed transit timing variations, the signature was clearly due to the other planet in the system and not a moon. At first we were disappointed it wasn't a moon but then we soon realized it was an extraordinary measurement," said Kipping.
(Excerpt) Read more at natureworldnews.com ...
An odd exoplanet orbiting a distant star has the mass of Earth, but is 60 percent larger in diameter than Earth, leading astronomers to believe that the new planet has a thick, gaseous atmosphere. KOI-314c, shown in this artist's conception, is the lightest planet to have both its mass and physical size measured. (Photo : C. Pulliam & D. Aguilar (CfA))
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Yes, they’re called extremophiles, and are the base for a food chain local to the vents.
How close is it to Uranus?
So couldn’t a planet like the one in the article theoretically harbor some type of life?
Doesn’t make sense
If it has the mass of the earth, then how can it have a Hydrogen Atmosphere? Especially one that is 220F.
Hydrogen floats right out of our atmosphere, and likewise the Hydrogen would have instantly floated away from this planet
daliesque life forms..
Ask Bawnwy Fwank.
We’ll leave it to you to penetrate its mysteries!
It’s a marshmallow?
Planet Nerf. Greetings Nerflings.
> At 220 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature on the planet, which is about 200 light years away, is too hot for life as we know it to exist.
Despite the above, yeah.
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