Posted on 05/16/2007 11:14:15 AM PDT by bedolido
A bizarre world of scorching hot ice shrouded in a steamy atmosphere may have been found, according to new observations. Characterising the Neptune-size planet is an important milestone on the way to detecting and characterising Earth-like planets that could harbour life.
Astronomers have discovered more than 200 planets orbiting other stars, called extrasolar planets or exoplanets. Almost all of these were detected by the way their gravity makes their parent stars wobble. But this technique, called the radial velocity method, reveals very little about the planet except for the size of its orbit and an estimate of its mass.
Transits occur when a planet appears to pass in front of its star as seen from Earth. New observations reveal that the planet around the star GJ 436 is just four times as wide as Earth – the smallest transiting planet yet known (Illustration: NASA/ESA/G Bacon)
(Excerpt) Read more at space.newscientist.com ...
You're going to make Algore's head explode.
BTTT
Incredible.
topic, cubed. ;’)
Strange alien world made of ‘hot ice’
NewScientistSpace | 05/16/07 | David Shiga
Posted on 05/17/2007 11:04:49 PM EDT by KevinDavis
A bihttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1835531/posts
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