The existence of a rocky planet outside our solar system is encouraging news for astronomers searching for signs of life elsewhere in the universe. Although Corot-7b is too hot to be habitable -- it's been nicknamed "the lava planet" -- its discovery relatively close to Earth suggests there may be rocky planets better suited for life farther out.
Astronomers have finally found a place outside our solar system where there's a firm place to stand -- if only it weren't so broiling hot.
As scientists search the skies for life elsewhere, they have found more than 300 planets outside our solar system. However, all are of them are gas balls or can't be proven to be solid. Now, a team of European astronomers has confirmed the first discovery of a rocky extrasolar planet.
Scientists have long figured that if life begins on a planet, it needs a solid surface to rest on, so finding one elsewhere is a big deal.
'Lava Planet'
"We basically live on a rock ourselves," said co-discoverer Artie Hatzes, director of the Thuringer observatory in Germany. "It's as close to something like the Earth that we've found so far. It's just a little too close to its sun."
So close that its surface temperature is more than 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit, too toasty to sustain life. It circles its star in just 20 hours, zipping around at 466,000 mph. By comparison, Mercury, the planet nearest our sun, completes its solar orbit in 88 days.
"It's hot -- they're calling it 'the lava planet,'" Hatzes said.
As scientists search the skies for life elsewhere, they have found more than 300 planets outside our solar system. However, all are of them are gas balls or can't be proven to be solid. Now, a team of European astronomers has confirmed the first discovery of a rocky extrasolar planet.
Scientists have long figured that if life begins on a planet, it needs a solid surface to rest on, so finding one elsewhere is a big deal.
'Lava Planet'
"We basically live on a rock ourselves," said co-discoverer Artie Hatzes, director of the Thuringer observatory in Germany. "It's as close to something like the Earth that we've found so far. It's just a little too close to its sun."
So close that its surface temperature is more than 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit, too toasty to sustain life. It circles its star in just 20 hours, zipping around at 466,000 mph. By comparison, Mercury, the planet nearest our sun, completes its solar orbit in 88 days.
"It's hot -- they're calling it 'the lava planet,'" Hatzes said.
Near Neighbor
This is a major discovery in the search for life elsewhere in the universe, said outside expert Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution.
It was the main buzz of a conference on finding an Earth-like planet outside our solar system, held in Barcelona, Spain, where the discovery was presented Wednesday morning. The find is also being published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
The planet is called "Corot-7b." It was first discovered earlier this year. European scientists then observed it dozens of times, measuring its density to prove that it is rocky like Earth.
It's in our general neighborhood, circling a star in the winter sky about 500 light-years away. Each light-year is about 6 trillion miles.
Better Digs Farther Away?
Four planets in our solar system are rocky: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
Corot-7b is about as close to Earth in size as any other planet found outside our solar system. Its radius is only one-and-a-half times bigger than Earth's, and it has a mass about five times Earth's.
Now that another rocky planet has been found so close to its own star, it gives scientists more confidence that they'll find more Earth-like planets farther away, where the conditions could be more favorable to life, Boss said.
"The evidence is becoming overwhelming that we live in a crowded universe," Boss said.
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