Scientists Discover a Second Earth Transiting a Star

[TheMasterOfOrion]

Satellite spots a planet less than twice the width of Earth.

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090203/full/news.2009.78.html

A European satellite has spied the smallest and fastest-orbiting extrasolar planet to date, bringing astronomers closer to finding a habitable planet outside our Solar System.
The Convection, Rotation and Planetary Transits (CoRoT) mission, a European Space Agency satellite that scans for exoplanets — planets outside our Solar System — has spied a rocky planet whose radius is slightly less than twice that of Earth. At 5–10 Earth masses, the planet is not the lowest-mass extrasolar planet ever found, but the mass and radius measurements suggest a density similar to that of earth.
"It's much more Earthlike than previously found planets," says Suzanne Aigrain, a researcher at the University of Exeter who is part of the CoRoT team. The results were announced today at a CoRoT symposium in Paris.
Astronomers have used a variety of space and ground-based techniques to observe about 330 extrasolar planets. The majority have been 'gas giants' similar in size to Jupiter, but a handful have been rocky planets that bear a passing resemblance to Earth. The lightest of these have been found using microlensing, which measures changes in the light of a background star, amplified by the mass of a foreground star and its planet.
CoRoT, by contrast, measures changes in a single star's apparent brightness caused by a planet. The method allows astronomers to get a rough estimate of the planet's girth, and in some cases, it has even allowed them to glean information about its atmosphere. Because the effect depends in part on the planet's proximity to its parent star, this technique is particularly good at spotting close-in planets.

NASA launches Kepler soon, a similar mission to the European one but NASA will launch a much bigger telescope with up to date instruments. The Kepler telescope will launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station onboard an unmanned Boeing Delta II delivery system. Kepler has a higher chance of exoplanet discovery and might even discover habitable aliens worlds.
http://discovery.nasa.gov/kepler.html

In to the future TPF (Terrestrial Planet Finder ) and Darwin (European telescope) these telescopes will be so powerful we will be able to image alien worlds directly and detect life signals. However funding was an issue and these super NASA telescope projects are expect to be cut or delayed.

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

Now, with an orbital period of just 0.85 days or 20 hours, it must be whizzing around it's star so fast and mighty close to it's star. Hence it has a high temperature, between 1000 and 1500°C, still scorchingly hot by my standards.
I'm guessing that it might be tidally locked - meaning only one side faces it's sun. On the other hand, it could be spinning so fast, so my guess could go in both extremes.
Reports say that it is a terrestrial rocky world, and one can walk on it's surface, they say. But getting someone to get there and do it is another issue.

CoRoT-Exo-7 b
Radius: between 1.75 and 2 Earth radius
Orbital period: 0.85 around a K star (T= 5300K)
Orbital Eccentricity: 0
Mass: less than 11 M_Eart
http://exoplanetology.blogspot.com/2009/02/walking-on-super-earth-corot-exo-7-b.html

 

[James Bond]

SHOCKING BREAKING EARTH SHATTERING NEWS!!111!: Scientists discover SECOND EARTH!!1

BUT it's far too close to its sun and too hot to support any life, so therefore not really a second Earth.


*Yawn..*

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

You do realize our current technology has limitations?? Hubble and Euro telescopes are part of map making, just like seventeenth-century sailors needed maps to cross the seas. You seem to be disappointed we haven't found planet Vulcan or planet Minbar yet. There are over 250 BILLION stars in our Galaxy, so doing a search will take a very long time. You can't just cry "I want to see a mirror Earth" ONSCREEN! ONSCREEN! the scientists must speed a lot of time and going over data and with 250 BILLION to search you are not going to get instant results.

 

[Plecostomus]

Also some of these stars might object to us dropping in for a visit.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Well, it's about the right size and rocky, so it's an Earth like planet. However, that planets atmosphere, hydrospehere, and climate are completely unlike that of the Earth.

Damn gelolgists!

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

"Scientists discover second Mercury or Venus or Mars or Earth or something roughly in that realm as opposed to a gas giant" just doesn't make much of a headline.

 

[Iasius]

Eh, I find more interesting that this is already number 337 in the list of discovered exoplanets.

*crosses fingers that everything will go right with the Kepler mission*

 

[Icemizer]

Scientists have found something round spinning around something that is round and hot that is far far far away. Anything else is all unknown and speculation.

 

[Roshi]

It's high time scientists use the correct terminology, as in M Class planet for Earth-like planets and D, H, J, K, L, N, T and Y for the other types!1!11!!!

 

[LLAP]

Let us claim the planet in the name of human civilization! Deploy the Space Marines! Come on, we all know US Space Command has a secret platoon of elite genetically engineered cyborg superhumans - with jetpacks - that can show any aliens who the real boss of the galaxy is.

 

[Dayton3]

Size and composition alone do not an Earth-like planet make.

 

[ALF]

We have got to get out there and plant an American flag on it.

 

[Dayton3]

We have got to get out there and plant an American flag on it.

Right now I would be satisfied with planting an American flag on Mars.

And then Callisto.

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

Size and composition alone do not an Earth-like planet make.

Sounds a bit like DremaIV, the one where Data saves a little girl
although this StarTrek planet is burning it is named an M-class planet by the Trek writers!?

 

[Dayton3]

Size and composition alone do not an Earth-like planet make.

Sounds a bit like DremaIV, the one where Data saves a little girl
although this StarTrek planet is burning it is named an M-class planet by the Trek writers!?

Drema IV was a Class M planet.

But it was in the process of being destroyed by internal stresses.

 

[Icemizer]

An American Flag Dayton? As patriotic as I am I think Mars needs to have a Earth flag on it. Claimed for all Humans not just Americans.

 

[Dayton3]

An American Flag Dayton? As patriotic as I am I think Mars needs to have a Earth flag on it. Claimed for all Humans not just Americans.

The only Earth I'm interested in is one dominated by the United States of America.

 

[Squiggy]

Then we'll have to spend BILLIONS. You ok with that?

 

[Lindley]

Wouldn't the two rovers have US markings on them anyway? Just paint one all colorful next time.....