Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Kepler-78b: Earth-Sized Planet Discovered

NASA ^ | November 05, 2013 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: Even though Kepler-78b is only slightly larger than the Earth, it should not exist. Its size is extraordinary only in the sense that it is the most similar in size to the Earth of any exoplanet yet directly discovered. Its orbit, however, is extraordinary in the sense that it circles a Sun-like star 40 times closer than planet Mercury. At such a scathing distance, even rock is liquid. Models of planet formation predict that no planet can form in such a close orbit, and models of planet evolution predict that Kepler-78b's orbit should decay -- dooming the planet to eventually merge with its parent star. Illustrated above in comparison with the Earth, Kepler-78b was discovered by eclipse with the Earth-orbiting Kepler spacecraft and further monitored for subtle wobbles by the HARPS- North, a spectrograph attached to the 3.6-meter Telescopio Nazionale Galileo in the Canary Islands.

[shibumi]

It's easier to comprehend if it'sposted in bold Italians.

"It's like this. There's the distance from Mercury to the Sun, right?

So this planet is that distant, but forty times that, toward its star. So it's actually 38 times further away, but on the other side."

Got that?

[cripplecreek]

[Conspiracy Guy]

It looks angry.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Perhaps it is hell ?

[editor-surveyor]

LOL!

[editor-surveyor]

>> “We’ll colonize it with really strong skinny people!” <<

.
Wearing asbestos undies!

[Verginius Rufus]

Stars come in a variety of colors and sizes--red giants are vastly larger than the sun (some are so large that the earth's orbit would be inside the star if it were located where the sun is) and white dwarfs (like the companion of Sirius) are much smaller than the sun.

If this planet is orbiting at one-fortieth Mercury's distance from the sun, it would be less than a million miles from its star's surface.

[Ironfocus]

Has Al Gore started bitching about global warming there? Must be the carbon emissions from a long time ago that got it so hot.

[Starstruck]

Riddick fan?

[Salamander]

I read what he said and still don’t.

*shrug*

I don’t get paid to be smart.

[shibumi]

Just stand there and keep looking beautiful and sexy and menacing.

Especially menacing. Menacing turns me on.

[Moltke]

OK, I referred to the narrower definition of “star” - not the pre (gas cloud) and post (where its fuel is spent and it turns into a red giant, brown dwarf, neutron star, black hole, goes all supernova on ya, etc.) states.

So sue me. ;-)

[Salamander]

*Grrrrr*

[CodeToad]

“No intelligent life would be possible on a planet of that size, even if it were in Earth’s place”

So, what??

[mikrofon]

[Helotes]

That’s great.

THANKS!

Life can be pretty funny me thinks

[MrB]

it should not exist

I actually love seeing phrases like this...
shows how ignorant man is of Creation.

[editor-surveyor]

So nothing really, since this is mostly Sci-Fi prattle, considering that if this ‘planet’ really exists it is completely liquid and gas, being so close to the sun.

[editor-surveyor]

>> “I don’t get paid to be smart.” <<

.
Try 1/40th as far from its sun then. that’s all they meant, but they couldn’t say it that simply.

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, that bugs me too. :’)