Kepler mission discovers its first rocky planet
The hunt for earthlike planets intensifies with the discovery of a hot rock, which is the smallest planet ever identified orbiting another star and completely rocky. A very intriguing discovery, but this planet is 20 times closer to its sun compared to our mercury. In other words, it’s really really hot! The surface temperature is 2500 degrees, enough to melt metal! Because the planet is so close to its star it is not in a position to allow water to exist. Also, Derrick corrects a point from last week regarding our sun going Supernova. Stars of our size really don’t have a possibility of going Supernova, because they are not massive enough. Also, don’t miss what’s in the night sky this week. All this and more on this week’s sky talk.See what a Supernova looks like at hubblesite.org.[audio: st20110117.mp3]
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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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