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Author Topic:   New Planet Discovered Orbiting Nearby Star
Tranquil Poet
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posted June 14, 2005 10:51 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
New Planet Discovered Orbiting Nearby Star




National Science Foundation
An artist's depiction of the newly-discovered planet.


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WASHINGTON (June 13) - 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 Monday 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.


06/13/05 14:50 EDT

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

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Gemini sun, Cancer rising, Taurus moon

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MAGUS of MUSIC
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posted June 14, 2005 09:58 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

Thats awesome!

Makes me less patient for them to finnaly find the planet Niberu/Marduk that the Sumerians and Babylonians had recorded so long ago.

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