Before we get started: no, the "Super-Earth" is not a habitable world. The planet I'm talking about is 55 Cancri e, which was discovered in 2004. Its only called a super-Earth because of its size and mass. It's mass is about 8 times greater than Earths and its about double in width.
Light was detected from 55 Cancri e for the first time this past week, and was detected by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Many astronomers are calling this a historic achievement because it's the first time light from a rocky super-earth has been seen. Because the side that faces the parent star reaches up to 1,726 degrees Celsius (3,140 degrees Fahrenheit) water cannot exist on the planet in a state that most humans are common with. It can however exist in a "supercritical fluid" state which can be thought of as a gas in a liquid state. Sometimes this happens on Earth in steam engines.
Spitzer found light from another planet in 2005, but it was a gas giant in an orbit extremely close to it's parent star. The alien solar system 55 Cancri e is a part of includes another four exoplanets. The star the exoplanets circle around is called 55 Cancri and the system is found in the constellation Cancer.
Light was detected from 55 Cancri e for the first time this past week, and was detected by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Many astronomers are calling this a historic achievement because it's the first time light from a rocky super-earth has been seen. Because the side that faces the parent star reaches up to 1,726 degrees Celsius (3,140 degrees Fahrenheit) water cannot exist on the planet in a state that most humans are common with. It can however exist in a "supercritical fluid" state which can be thought of as a gas in a liquid state. Sometimes this happens on Earth in steam engines.
Spitzer found light from another planet in 2005, but it was a gas giant in an orbit extremely close to it's parent star. The alien solar system 55 Cancri e is a part of includes another four exoplanets. The star the exoplanets circle around is called 55 Cancri and the system is found in the constellation Cancer.
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