"Lava Planet" Found Outside Solar System

Gas Balls Abound, But Hard Soil Planets Rare; This One Is Hot

(AP)  Astronomers have finally found a place outside our solar system where there's a firm place to stand - if only it weren't so broiling hot.

As scientists search the skies for life elsewhere, they have found more than 300 planets outside our solar system. But they all have been gas balls or can't be proven to be solid. Now a team of European astronomers has confirmed the first rocky extrasolar planet.

Scientists have long figured that if life begins on a planet, it needs a solid surface to rest on, so finding one elsewhere is a big deal.

European Southern Observatory

"We basically live on a rock ourselves," said co-discoverer Artie Hatzes, director of the Thuringer observatory in Germany. "It's as close to something like the Earth that we've found so far. It's just a little too close to its sun."

So close that its surface temperature is more than 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit, too toasty to sustain life. It circles its star in just 20 hours, zipping around at 466,000 mph. By comparison, Mercury, the planet nearest our sun, completes its solar orbit in 88 days.

"It's hot, they're calling it the lava planet," Hatzes said.

This is a major discovery in the field of trying to find life elsewhere in the universe, said outside expert Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution. It was the buzz of a conference on finding an Earth-like planet outside our solar system, held in Barcelona, Spain, where the discovery was presented Wednesday morning. The find is also being published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

The planet is called Corot-7b. It was first discovered earlier this year. European scientists then watched it dozens of times to measure its density to prove that it is rocky like Earth. It's in our general neighborhood, circling a star in the winter sky about 500 light-years away. Each light-year is about 6 trillion miles.

Four planets in our solar system are rocky: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

In addition, the planet is about as close to Earth in size as any other planet found outside our solar system. Its radius is only one-and-a-half times bigger than Earth's and it has a mass about five times the Earth's.

Now that another rocky planet has been found so close to its own star, it gives scientists more confidence that they'll find more Earth-like planets farther away, where the conditions could be more favorable to life, Boss said.

"The evidence is becoming overwhelming that we live in a crowded universe," Boss said.

[cs4466]

The more amazing and accurate science gets, the more dangerous and ridiculous the religion nuts become. Any time a new discovery is made it's "God this and God that". Oh please. Keep your religion to yourself and respect the SCIENCE that brought this to you.

[ToolMangler1]

It really bothers some people that GOD created 'science' also. I respect the GOD that 'brought' me the sciences. They are the things that teach me that I am fortunate not to be tied to a three dimensional world.

[ibzjem]

None of us are tied to a 3-dimensional world.

[ibsteve2u]

No, I won't say anything about "Gee, there sure is a lot more stuff out there than there is here...I guess the Creator was actually busting his/her butt on that day that I was told she/he took off."

That would be asking for it.

[alphaa10000]

SIMPLY MIND BOGGLING

Only vast increases in all-wavelength resolution make this discovery possible. Imagine, looking at a non-stellar object three quadrillion miles distant.

By using multiple, computer-controlled, dynamically-adjusted mirrors, astronomers expand the light-gathering capacity of an instrument made of many, much-smaller, much-simpler mirrors.

This eliminates the need to engage in an "arms race" of funding the world's biggest telescope mirror, and puts the effort where it should be-- gathering information.

In many ways, Hubble spawned this new generation of computer-controlled astronomical devices. The wonder of it all is equivalent of watching the world as a grainy, black-and-white video for years-- then discovering the same viewpoint in full-depth, digital color.

[ToolMangler1]

by alphaa10000 September 16, 2009 11:51 AM EDT
"SIMPLY MIND BOGGLING"



I understand your feeling. My mind boggled until I was 30, but after a steady Diet of Sci Fi and the texts of Nostradamus, The Bible, Orwell and others too numerous to mention I quit being "boggled" and started saying "Wonderful!!!!!! Whats next?????" and now find the Universe unfolding in the most wondrous manner imaginable. I no longer limit GOD to a mere 6000 years of creation because I have found that he is much bigger than that. The only thing that "Boggles" my mind now is, "What is 'Eternity'?????????

[rightiswrong]

"It circles its star in just 20 hours ..."

That's neat.

[ToolMangler1]

That would be one reason it is so 'HOT'. The tidal forces alone must be making it quiver like a bowl of Jello. Our planet does the same thing to a lesser degree.

[mysticorca]

This is by far *not* the first rocky planet we've discovered. The problem is that the ones we do find are freakin' huge and are called "Super Earths" So the real story is that it's the first small one that's not flung away so far from its star.

[sightpoint]

Maybe it is "running" so fast because its butt is on fire! OOH Hot...hot...hot ! Isn't it really an assumption with the data we have? I know it all makes sense but aren't we guessing? Even that close if it rotated fast enough and......oh never mind you're right!