A tiny planet found last year might be even smaller than first thought, weighing just 1.4 times as much as Earth. It is thought to orbit a dim red dwarf star (Illustration: ESO)
Posted on 01/19/2009 4:10:58 PM PST by SunkenCiv
A tiny planet found last year might be even smaller than first thought, weighing just 1.4 times as much as Earth. It is thought to orbit a dim red dwarf star (Illustration: ESO)
Smallest planet weighs just three EarthsAstronomers have discovered a planet about as massive as three Earths, orbiting an object smaller than our Sun.
by Michael Brooks
2 June 2008
Even smaller exoplanets have been found previously around stellar corpses called neutron stars. But this is the lightest planet ever found orbiting a star in the prime of its life.
In fact, the host star itself is very lightweight, and is thought to be a brown dwarf weighing between 6 and 8% as much as the Sun. Brown dwarfs are more massive than planets but not massive enough to sustain nuclear reactions in their cores, as normal stars do.
"Our discovery indicates that even the lowest-mass stars can host planets," David Bennett of the University of Notre Dame, who led an international team of astronomers to the discovery, said on Monday at the American Astronomical Society meeting in St Louis, Missouri, US.
The chilly planet orbits its brown dwarf parent in this artist's conception (Illustration: Exoplanet Exploration Program/NASA)
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I claim it in the name of conservatives.
At 1.4 earth masses, it will have a diameter about 10% greater than Earth and surface gravity about 16% greater.
Glad someone thought of that.
Guess we’ve got more than four years to save it, then. ;’)
President ‘has four years to save Earth’—More James Hansen Idiocy
The Observer | January 18, 2009 | Robin McKie
Posted on 01/18/2009 1:45:29 PM PST by RightWingConspirator
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2167045/posts
Now, we need a name for the new conservative homeworld.
Limbaugh V
The capitol city? Randopolis?
MOA-2007-BLG-192-L b is truly an historic discovery ~
/mark
New America..
Per Cripplecreek, it is now known as Limbaugh V. ;-)
Suggestions for the name of the capitol?
Randolpolis?
Von Misesberg?
Randolpolis? = Randopolis?
Well, no technological life there.
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