August 26, 2004
First (Big) Rock from the Sun

New Scientist is carrying this article detailing the first discovery of a more earth-like planet orbiting another sun. Found circling mu Arae, a star about 50 light years from ours, the planet is still several times more massive than ours, orbits its sun in just 9.5 days, at a distance of less than 1/10th of the Earth-Sun combination. However, the scientists who discovered it think it's likely to be a rocky world instead of another gas giant. The technique holds promise to find even smaller worlds, but probably not as small as Earth.

Posted by scott at August 26, 2004 03:13 PM

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