Earth-Sized Planets Confirmed -- But They're Dead

tizo writes "Robert Britt wrote an interesting article about the discovery of three Earth-sized planets confirmed after ten years of controversy. They orbit a pulsar, a neutron stars spinning very rapidly. Researchers pinned down the masses by watching how the planets affect pulses of energy coming from the star. All other known planets around other stars are much bigger (like Jupiter) and were found using other techniques (Doppler effect of main star moving in a close circle because of influence of the planet or direct transit over line of sight)."

Comments

Of course they are dead...

[Sevn]

EVERYBODY knows that class M planets almost always
end up smoking husks because the inhabitants attempt
to discover the mass of the higgs boson particle and
waste themselves.

The're dead, Jim!

[warpSpeed]

Damit, I'm a doctor, not an astrophysist.

Earth-Sized Planets Confirmed -- But They're Dead

[cgenman]

My goodness, can you imagine what would happen if we found an Earth-sized planet that was alive? What would it eat?

It would be like the Transformers Movie all over again.