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Discovery of smallest planet yet another 'milestone' in search for another EarthQuicklink submitted by Kyle McDermott Permalink |
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 Kepler 37b is just bigger than the Moon by NASA |
Astronomers have smashed the record for the smallest planet beyond our Solar System - finding one only slightly larger than our Moon. To spot the tiny, probably rocky planet, they first needed to precisely measure the size of its host star. They did so using 'astroseismology' - effectively, turning tiny variations in the star's light into sounds. The record for smallest 'exoplanet' is routinely being broken, as astronomers get better and better at finding them. 'It means we're really in the arena where it's possible to detect all the planets of our Solar System, but around other stars,' he told BBC News. 'I understand that people could get bored by these successive announcements,' he said. 'But hundreds or thousands of years from now, this will be remembered as the decade where discovery of other worlds of all kinds has been made possible.' |
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Humans might explore Goldilocks Planets!
by Mark Goldes on Thursday, Feb 21, 2013 at 4:23:33 PM