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Super-Earth]http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/super_earth_040825.html]"Super-Earth" Discovered at Nearby Star
"In a discovery that has left one expert stunned, European astronomers have found one of the smallest planets known outside our solar system, a world about 14 times the mass of our own around a star much like the Sun.
It could be a rocky planet with a thin atmosphere, a sort of 'super Earth,' the researchers said today..."
*In a tight orbit of 10 days' duration. mu Arae is only 50 light years away and possesses another two other planets as well, including a Jupiter-sized planet. Temperature 1600 F (on the super-Earth).
"The three-planet setup, with one being rocky, is unique...
'It's much closer to our solar system than anything we've found so far,' said Alan Boss, a planet-formation theorist at the Carnegie Institution in Washington...
'This really is an exciting discovery,' said Boss, who was not involved in the work. "I'm still somewhat stunned they have such good data'...
At 14 times the mass of Earth, the newfound planet -- circling a star similar in size and brightness to our Sun -- is about as heavy as Uranus...
Finally, Boss said, the star mu Arae has a higher metal content than the Sun, and theory says a planet forming close to such a star can be expected to gather more mass. It's all about how much building material is available..."
--Cindy :up:
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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