Smallest Earth-like planet found

[MIKE BURN]

Quote:

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4647142.stm



An international team of astronomers has found the smallest Earth-like planet yet outside our Solar System.



The new planet has five times the Earth's mass and can be found about 25,000 light-years away in the Milky Way, orbiting a red dwarf star.







The discovery, reported in the journal Nature, was made using a method called microlensing, which can detect far-off planets with an Earth-like mass.



The planet's cold temperatures make the chance of finding life very unlikely.



The planet, which goes by the name OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, takes about 10 years to orbit its parent star, a red dwarf which is cooler and smaller than Earth's Sun.



It is in the same galaxy as Earth, the Milky Way, but is found closer to the galactic centre.



The scientists say it probably has a rocky core and perhaps even a thin atmosphere, but its large orbit and cool parent star mean it is a very cold world.



Predicted surface temperatures are minus 220 degrees Celsius (-364F), meaning that its surface is likely to be layer of frozen liquid. It may therefore resemble a more massive version of Pluto.



"This is very exciting and important," said Professor Michael Bode from Liverpool John Moores University, a principal investigator for the RoboNet project which collaborated on this research.



"This is the most Earth-like planet we have discovered to date, in terms of its mass and the distance from its parent star," he told BBC News.



"Most of the other planets that have been discovered are either much more massive, much hotter or both."



The microlensing technique used to find this planet was first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1912.



Microlensing occurs when a massive object in space, like a star, crosses in front of another more distant star.



As it passes, the gravity from the foreground object bends the light coming from the background star, temporarily making it look brighter. This usually lasts for about a month.



If the foreground star has a planet orbiting it, it will distort the light even more, and will make the star behind it look even brighter. But this effect lasts for a much shorter period, giving astronomers just hours or days to detect it.

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MIKE
mikeburn and friends

[bbchris]

What do you think they'll call it?

|Blah Blah|Thinking Out Loud|Jane Eliz||Talk Soup | Underground HK |

[Ken McEachern]

I saw that on the News yesterday, Mike...





And it's funny - I thought of you, with your interest in the Heavens.....





Does anyone else believe it's possible that there is another place somewhere out there that we can relate to....?





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[Damien Project]

dammit...you guys found where i live ...vewry cool..i did not catch this bit of news..Nice one

Mark

www.soundclick.com/damienproject