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Small, hot earth-like planet discovered in space
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by Amy Judd | February 5, 2009 at 10:01 am
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A small, hot, earth-like planet has been discovered just outside our solar system, by the astronomers of the French Space Agency, and it even has a surface to walk on.
Using the COROT space telescope, the astronomers saw a small planet, less that twice the size of Earth that also orbits a star that is like our sun. It however has a temperature of about 1000 to 1500 degrees Celsius and and most likely contains high volumes of lava and water vapor.
"For the first time, we have unambiguously detected a planet that is 'rocky' in the same sense as our own Earth," said Malcolm Fridlund, ESA's COROT Project Scientist. "We now have to understand this object further to put it into context, and continue our search for smaller, more Earth-like objects with COROT."
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at 06:39 on May 25th, 2009
Wow, this now starts the discovery of the smaller exoplanets. They are all getting smarter and smarter at this. I guess the average person may not understand the significance of these discoveries, but it can be life changing one day.