Corot’s Find of Yet Another Exoplanet!

The French space telescope, Corot has done it again. An exoplanet is a planet outside our solar system that also orbits a star. The latest one found, is the smallest and one of the very few handful which are also “rocky” and share similar aspects such as Earth and Venus. An approximate of 330 exoplanets have been discovered so far. Because this exoplanet orbits extremely close to its star, it attains a temperature of about 1,000 to 1,500 degrees Celsius. Thus, concludes it is unable to withstand or support life. A great majority have been found by the radial velocity method. It is much easier to detect planets with a larger mass than others using the method. Lead by the French Space Agency, Corot’s mission is to the investigation of exoplanets and to study the interior of stars. To find more information about this topic, please follow the link below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7868100.stm