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Rocky Planet Discovered

Posted by timothy on from the does-it-have-hotels? dept.

Fraser Cain writes "Astronomers have discovered a rocky, terrestrial planet orbiting a nearby star, Gliese 876. The planet has approximately 7.5 times the mass of the Earth, double its radius, and orbits its parent star once every two days. This is the most Earthlike extrasolar planet discovered so far." Reader Karthik Narayanaswami points out that "the planet was discovered by the famed Berkeley astronomer Geoff Marcy," and adds a link to the news release from Berkeley.

3 of 331 comments (clear)

  1. Hey SETI by grub · · Score: 5, Interesting


    which is only 15 light years away

    So why not send some radio traffic which would obviously not be of natural origins. Surely 30ish years isn't that long to wait for a reply? (assuming the place has lifeforms which developed radio...)

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  2. Re:Once every two days? by chaotixx · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Its Earth-like because it is a rocky, rather than gaseous planet. Astronomers have to find new planets by detecting the wobble in the path of the star being orbited, which is caused by the orbiting planet. The bigger the planet, the bigger the wobble, so big gas giants were the first planets found. The fact that it completes an orbit in two days also helps as you don't need to collect years of data in order to see the wobble. So it's really not very Earth-like, but its the closest thing found so far, outside of our solar system.

  3. Doesn't sound very earthlike by Pinefresh · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am not an astronomer, but isn't mars more earthlike than that?