Pat Brennan A wonderfully weird planet is the first world like Mercury found outside our solar system. ". [81], New research suggests that the rocky centres of super-Earths are unlikely to evolve into terrestrial rocky planets like the inner planets of the Solar System because they appear to hold on to their large atmospheres. It orbits the star every 3.4 days at a distance about 13 times closer than Mercury orbits the Sun. With Gliese 581c having a mass of at least 5 Earth masses and a distance from Gliese 581 of 0.073 astronomical units (6.8 million mi, 11 million km), it is on the "warm" edge of the habitable zone around Gliese 581 with an estimated mean temperature (without taking into consideration effects from an atmosphere) of −3 degrees Celsius with an albedo comparable to Venus and 40 degrees Celsius with an albedo comparable to Earth. Exoplanets at the upper limits of the super-Earth size limit can also be referred to as sub-Neptunes, or mini-Neptunes. Some authors further suggest that the term Super-Earth might be limited to rocky planets without a significant atmosphere, or planets that have not just atmospheres but also solid surfaces or oceans with a sharp boundary between liquid and atmosphere, which the four giant planets in the Solar System do not have. The end result could be an "archipelago planet" of shallow oceans dotted with island chains ideally suited for biodiversity. One or more worlds in a four-planet system are so thoroughly cooked they are venting their atmospheres into space. The four-planet system, dubbed HD 219134, had been found 21 light years from Earth in the M-shaped northern hemisphere of constellation Cassiopeia, but it is not in the habitable zone of its star. [61] Due to its closeness to Earth, Proxima b may be a flyby destination for a fleet of interstellar StarChip spacecraft currently being developed by the Breakthrough Starshot project. Manager: The planets straddle an observed gap in the sizes of known planets and promise to be among the most curious targets for future studies. Iron-massive super Earth, Lava or not, exoplanet 55 Cancri e likely has an atmosphere, Discovery alert! The two outer planets (Poltergeist and Phobetor) of the system have masses approximately four times Earth—too small to be gas giants. In 2016, researchers discovered Proxima Centauri b, an exoplanet … [63], In July 2018, the discovery of 40 Eridani b was announced. [1] The term "super-Earth" refers only to the mass of the planet, and so does not imply anything about the surface conditions or habitability. [50][51], On 7 January 2013, astronomers from the Kepler space observatory announced the discovery of Kepler-69c (formerly KOI-172.02), an Earth-like exoplanet candidate (1.5 times the radius of Earth) orbiting a star similar to our Sun in the habitable zone and possibly a "prime candidate to host alien life". Planets above 10 Earth masses are termed massive solid planets,[12] mega-Earths,[13][14] or gas giant planets,[15] depending on whether they are mostly rock and ice or mostly gas. They are part of a cluster of as many as seven planets that circle Gliese 667C, one of three stars located a relatively close 22 light years from Earth in the constellation of Scorpio, it said. Astronomers find an oven-hot exoplanet in a triple star system. Theoretical modelling of two of these super-Earths, Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f, suggests both could be solid, either rocky or rocky with frozen water. [36], On 2 February, the Kepler Space Observatory mission team released a list of 1235 extrasolar planet candidates, including 68 candidates of approximately "Earth-size" (Rp < 1.25 Re) and 288 candidates of "super-Earth-size" (1.25 Re < Rp < 2 Re). [ 92 ] super-Earths of about 2 days six, moves in gravitational harmony around a normal and! 40 Eridani b was announced by astrophysicist David P. 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