kong
01-12-2012, 06:22 PM
Astronomers Discover Three Alien Planets Smaller Than Earth
Using the data from NASA's Kepler mission, astronomers have found three alien planets smaller than Earth, orbiting a star much smaller than our Sun.
The planets, which are orbiting a red dwarf star known as KOI-961, are 0.78, 0.73 and 0.57 times the diameter of Earth, making them the smallest alien planets discovered so far.
The KOI-961 is located 120 light-years away, in the Constellation Cygnus (The Swan). It's approximately one-sixth the size of our sun, which made it possible for scientists to watch for dips in the star's brightness and thus discover the orbiting planets.
The planets are thought to be rocky like Earth, but they are too close to the star to be habitable - at least by our standards.
"It's almost like you took a shrink gun and zapped a planetary system, the whole thing, including the sun," John Johnson, principal investigator John Johnson of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, told Space.com.
Recently, also using data from the Kepler mission, scientists have discovered two Earth-sized planets orbiting a star almost 1,000 light-years away.
Using the data from NASA's Kepler mission, astronomers have found three alien planets smaller than Earth, orbiting a star much smaller than our Sun.
The planets, which are orbiting a red dwarf star known as KOI-961, are 0.78, 0.73 and 0.57 times the diameter of Earth, making them the smallest alien planets discovered so far.
The KOI-961 is located 120 light-years away, in the Constellation Cygnus (The Swan). It's approximately one-sixth the size of our sun, which made it possible for scientists to watch for dips in the star's brightness and thus discover the orbiting planets.
The planets are thought to be rocky like Earth, but they are too close to the star to be habitable - at least by our standards.
"It's almost like you took a shrink gun and zapped a planetary system, the whole thing, including the sun," John Johnson, principal investigator John Johnson of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, told Space.com.
Recently, also using data from the Kepler mission, scientists have discovered two Earth-sized planets orbiting a star almost 1,000 light-years away.