the truth is out there
I’m not much of an outer space kind of girl, really, but this is just too fun:
Earth’s “Bigger Cousin” Detected
By Michael Schirber
Staff Writer
posted: 13 June, 2005
2:30 p.m. ET
Astronomers announced today the discovery of the smallest planet so far found outside of our solar system. About seven-and-a-half times as massive as Earth, and about twice as wide, this new extrasolar planet may be the first rocky world ever found orbiting a star similar to our own.
“This is the smallest extrasolar planet yet detected and the first of a new class of rocky terrestrial planets,” said team member Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. “It’s like Earth’s bigger cousin.”
