Posted on 06/13/2005 12:42:00 PM PDT by The_Victor
WASHINGTON — A planet that may be Earth-like — but too hot for life as we know it — has been discovered orbiting a nearby star.
The discovery of the planet, with an estimated radius about twice that of Earth, was announced today at the National Science Foundation.
"This is the smallest extrasolar planet yet detected and the first of a new class of rocky terrestrial planets," Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution in Washington said in a statement. "It's like Earth's bigger cousin."
Geoffrey Marcy, professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, added: "Over 2,000 years ago, the Greek philosophers Aristotle and Epicurus argued about whether there were other Earth-like planets. Now, for the first time, we have evidence for a rocky planet around a normal star."
Though the researchers have no direct proof that the new planet is rocky, its mass means it is not a giant gas planet like Jupiter, they said. They estimated the planet's mass as 5.9 to 7.5 times that of Earth.
It is orbiting a star called Gliese 876, 15 light years from Earth, with an orbit time of just 1.94 Earth days. They estimated the surface temperature on the new planet at between 400 degrees and 750 degrees Fahrenheit.
Gliese 876 is a small, red star with about one-third the mass of the sun. The researchers said this is the smallest star around which planets have been discovered. In addition to the newly found planet the star has two large gas planets around it.
Butler said the researchers think that the most probable composition of the planet is similar to inner planets of this solar system — a nickel/iron rock.
Gregory Laughlin of the Lick Observatory at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said a planet of this mass could have enough gravity to hold onto an atmosphere. "It would still be considered a rocky planet, probably with an iron core and a silicon mantle. It could even have a dense steamy water layer."
Three other extrasolar planets believed to be of rocky composition have been reported, but they orbit a pulsar — the flashing corpse of an exploded star — rather than a normal type of star.
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On the Net:
National Science Foundation: http://www.nsf.gov
Is it Talos IV?????
That's earth like?
Just whipping around it's sun isn't it.
Wow!! This planet's really moving.
Imagine the mortgage rates on this real estate.
sounds like a good place for Dean's voter-outreach program
If we only had a Stargate!
Imagine the mortgage rates on this real estate.
But you could live to be 14000 years old.
Shekkian, did it say the distance from the it's sun? That orbit is haulin a$$ either way.
Exactly...how is this Earth like? Granted it is more Earth like than a gas giant, but still.
I just can't believe that orbital period. It would have to be so close to the star that friction would quckly bring it down.
1.94 YEARS, maybe?
Actually, 1.94 days is possible. The star is dim so while it's hot as the article said, it's nowhere near as hot as if the planet were the same distance from our sun.
That sucker is movin'!
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