Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Astronomers See the Glow of a Boiling Planet

Posted by Soulskill on from the anybody-have-a-starship-for-sale dept.

The Bad Astronomer writes "For the first time, astronomers have detected the light from a 'super-Earth' exoplanet. The planet 55 Cancri e (with twice the radius and 8 times the mass of Earth) circles its host star every 18 hours, and is so hot it glows in the infrared. By observing in that wavelength, the astronomers measured the dip in light as the planet's glow was blocked by the star itself. This is the reverse of the usual method of detecting a planet as it blocks the light of its host star."

4 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How cold do you think it needs to be ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ahhh.. Crematoria.

  2. Sauna world by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Funny

    I suggest we send Finnish astronauts. They actually like this sort of place.

    "Cosmonaut Hämeenniemi! Have you reached the planet, what is it like!"

    (long delay)

    "Shhh... I'm relaxing"

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  3. ^_^ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    A watched planet never boils...

  4. Re:How cold do you think it needs to be ? by avgjoe62 · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...it's really, really, *really* hot.

    Yea, but it's a dry heat...

    --

    How come Slashdot never gets Slashdotted?