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Spitzer Detects Shadow of 'Super-Earth' in Front of Nearby Star
www.sciencedaily.com ^ | May 5, 2011 | Staff

Posted on 05/06/2011 7:21:02 AM PDT by Red Badger

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected the crossing of a solid planet in front of a star located at only 42 light-years in the constellation Cancer. Thanks to this detection, astronomers know that this "super-Earth" measures 2.1 times the size of our Earth. This is the smallest exoplanet detected in the neighborhood of our Sun.

The discovery is based on data acquired by the Spitzer spacecraft last January. The data allowed astronomers to detect the "transit" of the planet, i.e. the tiny decrease of the star's brightness occurring when the planet passes in front of it.

"So far, the exquisite capabilities of Spitzer have been extensively used to study known transiting exoplanets, all of them being giant planets similar to Jupiter or Neptune. For the first time, Spitzer is used to detect the transit of a super-Earth, a solid planet not much larger than our own Earth," says Michaël Gillon from University of Liège (Belgium), the leader of the team that made this detection. "Thanks to the high-precision of Spitzer, we now know the nature of this planet, and, interestingly, it is very different from all the planets of our solar System."

The planet name is 55 Cancri e. With 8 times the mass of the Earth, for a size 2.1 larger, it is simply too big to be purely rocky, meaning that it must have a significant fraction of ice, the favored composition being a massive shell of water ice on top of a rocky nucleus. "We could call this planet a 'naked Neptune', as it is very similar to Neptune except that it has no gazeous envelope of hydrogen above its ice shell," says Brice-Olivier Demory from the Massachusets Institute of Technology (MIT), the first author of the paper describing the discovery.

(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Technical
KEYWORDS: 55cancri; 55cancrie; astronomy; cosmology; goldilocks; goldilocksplanet; goldilockszone; science; space; spitzer; spitzertelescope; xplanets
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To: Red Badger

Ironic that the planets they can detect, the “hot Jupiters”, cannot exist in the current secular theory of solar formation.


21 posted on 05/06/2011 7:57:04 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
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To: MrB

Then their theory must be flawed.
The very existence of the ‘Hot Jupiters’ means that they must re think their theory.............


22 posted on 05/06/2011 7:59:33 AM PDT by Red Badger (Mitt Romney: The Harold Stassen of the 21st century........)
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To: MrB
Another word they could use is “terrestrial”. I agree with Gabby Johnson - they’re trying to make extra-solar earths more of a possibility than they are.

Actually our ability to see earth sized planets is very limited. As our instruments improve we may see many that are just the right distant from their suns and they right size to be compared to earth. As for this planet being to big that would depend. If life was created(or evolved if you are an evo)on this planet it would be able to walk around despite the heavy gravity. The cold however might pose a bigger problem.

Scientists probably do want to find earth like planets and exaggerate the ones they do find but sooner or later they will find them.

23 posted on 05/06/2011 7:59:53 AM PDT by calex59
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To: Red Badger

“naked Neptune”? Didn’t Michelangelo do that?


24 posted on 05/06/2011 8:09:49 AM PDT by LRS ("This is silly! It can't be! It can't be!!" "Oh yes it is! I said you wouldn't know the joint.")
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To: wbarmy

Actually, the gravity would be tolerable. 2x earth mass means ~1.4g.


25 posted on 05/06/2011 8:14:42 AM PDT by Squawk 8888 (Tories in- mission accomplished)
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To: Red Badger

True, but “super earth” isn’t one word either. ;)


26 posted on 05/06/2011 8:17:03 AM PDT by RobRoy (The US today: Revelation 18:4)
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To: LRS

All his stuff was naked.............


27 posted on 05/06/2011 8:19:23 AM PDT by Red Badger (Mitt Romney: The Harold Stassen of the 21st century........)
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To: LRS
“naked Neptune”? Didn’t Michelangelo do that?

Why do you think Jupiter is so hot?

28 posted on 05/06/2011 8:19:59 AM PDT by sportutegrl
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To: RobRoy

They hyphenated it............


29 posted on 05/06/2011 8:20:01 AM PDT by Red Badger (Mitt Romney: The Harold Stassen of the 21st century........)
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To: Red Badger

Dang cheaters!


30 posted on 05/06/2011 8:20:53 AM PDT by RobRoy (The US today: Revelation 18:4)
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To: calex59

There is only a certain range of “gravities” in which “large” (say, bigger than a cricket) animals can survive, due to insurmountable physical/chemical limitations.


31 posted on 05/06/2011 8:27:07 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
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To: Squawk 8888

What does 8 times earth’s mass mean?


32 posted on 05/06/2011 8:32:17 AM PDT by dangerdoc (see post #6)
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To: Red Badger
The very existence of the ‘Hot Jupiters’ means that they must re think their theory.............

Naked Neptune and Hot Jupiter - I'm not sure I like where this is going...

33 posted on 05/06/2011 8:35:51 AM PDT by frithguild (The Democrat Party Brand - Big Government protecting Entrenched Interests from Competition)
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To: MrB

Is there a theological “theory” of solar formation?

How is the theory of solar/stellar formation “secular” any more or less than any other scientific theory?


34 posted on 05/06/2011 8:41:08 AM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send the GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism.)
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To: dangerdoc

My bad- I forgot that doubling diameter means 8x volume. Assuming 8x mass that’s about 5g- definitely uncomfortable.


35 posted on 05/06/2011 9:40:45 AM PDT by Squawk 8888 (Tories in- mission accomplished)
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To: allmost; KevinDavis; annie laurie; Knitting A Conundrum; Viking2002; Ernest_at_the_Beach; ...

Thanks allmost.
 
X-Planets
· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe ·
Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar ·

36 posted on 05/07/2011 5:47:18 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: SunkenCiv

From looking at the headline, I thought Eliot Spitzer had finally gone over the edge.


37 posted on 05/07/2011 7:46:09 AM PDT by TheOldLady
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