Super Earth Reveals Itself to Spitzer NASA's Spitzer Space
Telescope has, for the first time, captured the light emanating
from a distant super Earth, a planet more massive than Earth but
lighter than Neptune. Super Earths can be either rocky or
gaseous. In this case, theorists propose that the planet, called
55 Cancri e, has a rocky core surrounded by a layer of water in
a "supercritical" state, where it is both liquid and gas.
Topping it all off is thought to be a blanket of steam. It's as
if Neptune were somehow dragged closer to the sun and stripped
of its large atmosphere. This artist's animation depicts 55
Cancri e as it orbits its star. The planet whips around the star
closely and quickly: It is 25 times closer to the star than
Mercury is to our sun and completes one orbit -- its year -- in
a mere 18 hours. The view starts off showing the system in
visible light then switches to show how Spitzer saw it in
infrared light. In infrared, the planet stands out more relative
to its star -- it is brighter whe