'Super Earth' found circling nearby star......

Scientist in awe about a star that seems to be a Super Earth. This star has a rocky surface unlike most made of gas, and also has a thin atmosphere like ours. Only problem is it is far enough away that it is hard for us to completely study. The good news is it is very similar to earth in all aspects, however it is fourteen times bigger!

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This could be a great find! Hopefully it is all it appears to be. Lets cross our fingers and thank "our Lucky Stars" (no pun intended) if it is. Until then all anyone can do is theorize. Again another possible existence of a planet able to possibly support life!

[edit on 15-1-2007 by UM_Gazz]

[edit: removed (submission) from title, as this was originally posted to ATSNN]

[edit on 1/15/2007 by 12m8keall2c]

Good Find, but not at all likely to be "another Earth." The temp is 1,160F, not to mention 50 light years away (6 trillion miles). What are you thanking our lucky stars for. Sure it is amazing find, but that's about it. We all know we're not the only life out in the universe.....

A very interesting discovery.

Any planet found is cool to me, especially so when we find planets
that are smaller and smaller.

I am interested to know if the planet is tidaly locked, and how thick,
or thin it's atmosphere is, as the only way complex life could hope
to develop on it, would be for it to be tidally locked.

Life could than theoretically devlop in the life zone on the planet,
assuming it's atmosphere would allow it, and a life zone exists.

It is very possible that such a planet could have a habitable moon that would be even more earth like.

It is merely a matter of time before we have evidence of rocky planets our size. The real challenge for us is if we can develop a means to travel that far and actually see and visit such planets.

X

Unfortuneately being 14 times bigger means that the gravity is 14 times more than what we are used to here on earth. It means that we will never be able to inhabit this planet because we will never be able to withstand its gravity.

I thought of that to, but than it may not be made of the same minerals
as the Earth, which would reduce it's gravitational field some, though
you're correct an unmodified human could not survive above 7 times
gravity.

A modified human could live there though,m saying an environment capable of supporting human life existed.

"Super Earth"????

NO!

A Super Earth would not cook you alive in seconds.

It's atmosphere is irelevant as the temperature does not support any life forms. Sure, species adapt to extreme cold or extreme heat but not both.. and not that extreme. And the temp would make it impossible for there to be water.. it would evaperate away into space. So .. maybe it is a "Super Venus" or something.

The only thing I find interesting about the story is it circles a star the size of our sun in 10 days. I am fascinated by gravity and time.. a planet with that mass moving that fast would have a completely different time speed then our own. 10 days our time might seem like 365 days if your actually on the planet.. but time on earth would continue at the same speed.

Try almost 294 trillion miles! It's one hell of a bus journey that's for sure. Light travels at almost 6 trillion miles per year (5.8 trillion). Bring on inter-dimensional space travel.

The planet's sidereal time does not necessarily mean its moving that fast. I mean does anyone know how far it is from its sun?

Also relative to anyone that would be on that planet the length of days/years might seem different. but time does not change.





composition of the planet should have little effect on gravity. mass is what will affect an objects gravitational "pull"