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Lofty Thought of the Day
- Category: Science & Technology
By John D. Sutter, CNN.com - December 16, 2009. Astronomers announced this week they found a water-rich and relatively nearby planet that's similar in size to Earth. This illustration shows how the newly discovered planet may look orbiting its nearby star, which is smaller than Earth's sun.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Astronomers have found a watery planet that's similar in size to Earth
* The planet probably is too hot to support life similar to that found on Earth
* The planet, named GJ 1214b, is 2.7 times as large as Earth and orbits a smaller star
* Astronomers spotted the planet using a 16-inch telescope on the ground
While the planet probably has too thick of an atmosphere and is too hot to support life similar to that found on Earth, the discovery is being heralded as a major breakthrough in humanity's search for life on other planets.
Image Credit: David A. Aguilar/Harvard-Smithsonian Center For Astrophysics. This artist's conception shows the newly discovered planet, a super-Earth named GJ 1214b, orbiting its red dwarf star 40 light-years from our Earth.
"The big excitement is that we have found a watery world orbiting a very nearby and very small star," said David Charbonneau, a Harvard professor of astronomy and lead author of an article on the discovery, which appeared this week in the journal Nature.
The planet, named GJ 1214b, is 2.7 times as large as Earth and orbits a star much smaller and less luminous than our sun. That's significant, Charbonneau said, because for many years, astronomers assumed that planets only would be found orbiting stars that are similar in size to the sun...MORE...
