Posted on Friday, June 06, 2014
560 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Draco there is an old star called Kepler-10, around which orbits a newly discovered type of planet - a "mega-Earth", that has 17 times the mass of Earth and twice its diameter.
It's a surprising find, since scientists expected bigger planets to be gaseous rather than rocky, because it is believed that smaller rocky planets like Earth form from left-over matter in the planet-forming process.
The planet, called Kepler-10c, is the second planet discovered in the Kepler-10 system, the discovery of which was announced in May 2011. It orbits the star in 45 days at a distance of about 0,24 AU, with a surface temperature of about 210 degrees Centigrade and gravity on its surface about three times that of the Earth.
It's a surprising find, since scientists expected bigger planets to be gaseous rather than rocky, because it is believed that smaller rocky planets like Earth form from left-over matter in the planet-forming process.
The planet, called Kepler-10c, is the second planet discovered in the Kepler-10 system, the discovery of which was announced in May 2011. It orbits the star in 45 days at a distance of about 0,24 AU, with a surface temperature of about 210 degrees Centigrade and gravity on its surface about three times that of the Earth.
Labels: exoplanet, Kepler-10c, news