Kepler Finds First Definitively Rocky Exoplanet

The planet-hunting Kepler Space Telescope has spotted its first rocky exoplanet, astronomers announced today at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

“This is the first unquestionably rocky planet orbiting a star outside our solar system,” said astronomer Natalie Batalha of San Jose State University, a member of the Kepler team. “It’s an important milestone for our team, and I think it’s an important milestone for humanity.”

www.wired.com...

And its hot enough to melt iron.

I wonder what other kind of discoveries will be made for the year 2011.

There was a prediction article in the new scientist (frankly more believable than all of the ones on here) and it suggested that in 2011 we would discover a planet similar to earth.

Good.. we know that there are solid bodies in the Universe...


now... where to find E.T.

Originally posted by Oozii
And its hot enough to melt iron.

Indeed:

Temperatures on the daytime side of the planet would reach 2780 degrees Fahrenheit, as hot as some red dwarf stars.

I wonder what the temperatures on the nighttime side are?

Even if the nighttime side is cool enough, it might be hard to walk, it has 5 times Earth's gravity.

I wonder what the most G-force is that humans can tolerate, for living on a planet? I suspect we could handle 2 Gs but maybe not 5 Gs, at least not without some evolution.

This is actually quite significant, I'd think. The first rocky planet found outside our solar system. I can't help wondering how many more are out there... With current detection capabilities, we are finding nothing but gas giants (and this one planet now!) so it is impossible to know yet whether our solar system is typical or unusual.