A Super-Earth with an atmosphere is discovered
As 2009 comes to a close we talk about why sunset/sunrise times are off from solstice. Plus, talk about small!! Astronomers find a small Kuiper Belt object, a mere 3,200 feet across, and 4.2 billion miles away. Previous small record-holder was 30 mi. across. Then, we seem to be getting closer all the time to discovering a planet that is just like ours. This time astronomers are calling it a Super-Earth and guess what? It even has it’s own atmosphere. Never mind that it’s 108 miles thick, or that the temp is 400 degrees F., or that it’s a mere 1.3 million miles from its sun and orbits every 38 hours. Check out all that and some night sky highlights for this week on this week’s SkyTalk.Listen:[audio: st20091228.mp3]
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Skytalk
Skytalk is hosted by WHYY's Dave Heller. Each week he discusses the latest news in astronomy with Dr. Derrick H. Pitts of the Franklin Institute.
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