super-Earth tagged posts

K2 light curve of HD 3167. Top: the full K2 light curve. Both the numerous, shallow transits of HD 3167 b and three deeper transits of HD 3167 c are evident in the light curve by eye. Bottom left: K2 light curve (grey dots) phase folded on the transits of HD 3167 b, and best-fit transit model (thick purple line). Bottom right: K2 light curve (grey dots) phase folded on the transits of HD 3167 c, and best-fit transit model (thick purple line). Credit: Vanderburg et al., 2016.

NASA’s Kepler spacecraft continues its fruitful exoplanet hunt with the newest discovery of 2 super-Earth-sized alien worlds. The newly detected planets are orbiting a nearby sun-sized star HD 3167, 150 light years away...

This is an illustration of 55 Cancri e. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The most detailed map of a small, rocky ‘super Earth’ to date reveals a planet almost completely covered by lava, with a molten ‘hot’ side and solid ‘cool’ side. Conditions on the hot side of the planet are so extreme that it may have caused the atmosphere to evaporate, with the result that conditions on the 2 sides of the planet vary widely: temperatures on the hot side can reach 2500C, while temperatures on the cool side are around 1100C.

Using data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, the researchers examined a planet known as 55 Cancri e, which orbits a sun-like star located 40 light years away in the Cancer constellation, and have mapped how conditions on the planet change throughout a complete orbit, the first time this...

This artist’s impression shows the super-Earth 55 Cancri e in front of its parent star. Using observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and new analytic software scientists were able to analyse the composition of its atmosphere. It was the first time this was possible for a super-Earth. 55 Cancri e is about 40 light-years away and orbits a star slightly smaller, cooler and less bright than our Sun. As the planet is so close to its parent star, one year lasts only 18 hours and temperatures on the surface are thought to reach around 2000 degrees Celsius. Credit: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser

The first successful detection of gases in the atmosphere of a super-Earth reveals the presence of hydrogen and helium, but no water vapour...

An artist’s conception shows Kepler-36c as it might look from the surface of neighboring Kepler-36b. Credits: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics/David Aguilar.

1,530 light years away in constellation Cygnus, Kepler-36 is a sun-like star orbited by 2 known alien worlds. The inner planet, Kepler-36b is a so-called “super-Earth,” ie larger than our home planet but smaller than Neptune; the larger Kepler-36c, resembling the solar system’s outermost planet, is described as a “mini-Neptune.” What is unusual about this planetary system is that these 2 exoworlds have very close orbits, separated only by 0.013 astronomical units (AU)—5X the Earth-moon distance...