Post by sciwriter on Sept 16, 2009 8:28:25 GMT -7
Wear shoes when walking on this planet. Carl
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090916/ap_on_sc/us_sci_rocky_planet/print
Found: Firm place to stand outside solar system
9/16/09
WASHINGTON – Astronomers have finally found a place outside our solar system
where there's a firm place to stand — if only it weren't so broiling hot.
As scientists search the skies for life elsewhere, they have found more than 300
planets outside our solar system. But they all have been gas balls or can't be
proven to be solid. Now a team of European astronomers has confirmed the first
rocky extrasolar planet.
Scientists have long figured that if life begins on a planet, it needs a solid
surface to rest on, so finding one elsewhere is a big deal.
"We basically live on a rock ourselves," said co-discoverer Artie Hatzes,
director of the Thuringer observatory in Germany. "It's as close to something
like the Earth that we've found so far. It's just a little too close to its
sun."
So close that its surface temperature is more than 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit, too
toasty to sustain life. It circles its star in just 20 hours, zipping around at
466,000 mph. By comparison, Mercury, the planet nearest our sun, completes its
solar orbit in 88 days.
"It's hot, they're calling it the lava planet," Hatzes said.
This is a major discovery in the field of trying to find life elsewhere in the
universe, said outside expert Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution. It was the
buzz of a conference on finding an Earth-like planet outside our solar system,
held in Barcelona, Spain, where the discovery was presented Wednesday morning.
The find is also being published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
The planet is called Corot-7b. It was first discovered earlier this year.
European scientists then watched it dozens of times to measure its density to
prove that it is rocky like Earth. It's in our general neighborhood, circling a
star in the winter sky about 500 light-years away. Each light-year is about 6
trillion miles.
Four planets in our solar system are rocky: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
In addition, the planet is about as close to Earth in size as any other planet
found outside our solar system. Its radius is only one-and-a-half times bigger
than Earth's and it has a mass about five times the Earth's.
Now that another rocky planet has been found so close to its own star, it gives
scientists more confidence that they'll find more Earth-like planets farther
away, where the conditions could be more favorable to life, Boss said.
"The evidence is becoming overwhelming that we live in a crowded universe," Boss
said.
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090916/ap_on_sc/us_sci_rocky_planet/print
Found: Firm place to stand outside solar system
9/16/09
WASHINGTON – Astronomers have finally found a place outside our solar system
where there's a firm place to stand — if only it weren't so broiling hot.
As scientists search the skies for life elsewhere, they have found more than 300
planets outside our solar system. But they all have been gas balls or can't be
proven to be solid. Now a team of European astronomers has confirmed the first
rocky extrasolar planet.
Scientists have long figured that if life begins on a planet, it needs a solid
surface to rest on, so finding one elsewhere is a big deal.
"We basically live on a rock ourselves," said co-discoverer Artie Hatzes,
director of the Thuringer observatory in Germany. "It's as close to something
like the Earth that we've found so far. It's just a little too close to its
sun."
So close that its surface temperature is more than 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit, too
toasty to sustain life. It circles its star in just 20 hours, zipping around at
466,000 mph. By comparison, Mercury, the planet nearest our sun, completes its
solar orbit in 88 days.
"It's hot, they're calling it the lava planet," Hatzes said.
This is a major discovery in the field of trying to find life elsewhere in the
universe, said outside expert Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution. It was the
buzz of a conference on finding an Earth-like planet outside our solar system,
held in Barcelona, Spain, where the discovery was presented Wednesday morning.
The find is also being published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
The planet is called Corot-7b. It was first discovered earlier this year.
European scientists then watched it dozens of times to measure its density to
prove that it is rocky like Earth. It's in our general neighborhood, circling a
star in the winter sky about 500 light-years away. Each light-year is about 6
trillion miles.
Four planets in our solar system are rocky: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
In addition, the planet is about as close to Earth in size as any other planet
found outside our solar system. Its radius is only one-and-a-half times bigger
than Earth's and it has a mass about five times the Earth's.
Now that another rocky planet has been found so close to its own star, it gives
scientists more confidence that they'll find more Earth-like planets farther
away, where the conditions could be more favorable to life, Boss said.
"The evidence is becoming overwhelming that we live in a crowded universe," Boss
said.