First rocky exoplanet is identified The first Earth-like planet
outside the solar system has been identified. Unfortunately,
it's only Earth-like in that it's solid enough to stand on. The
planet - discovered in February this year - has a mass five
times that of Earth, with a radius almost double Earth's, giving
it a similar density. Gliese 581 e, discovered arlier this year
is believed to be icy, and most exoplanets are known to be
gaseous giants like Jupiter. "This is science at its thrilling
and amazing best," said team leader Didier Queloz. "We did
everything we could to learn what the object discovered by the
Corot satellite looks like and we found a unique system." The
planet, dubbed Corot-7b, orbits a rather unremarkable star, now
known as Corot-7. It's located towards the constellation of
Monoceros (the Unicorn) at a distance of about 500 light-years.
Slightly smaller and cooler than our sun, Corot-7 is also
thought to be younger, with an age of about 1.5 billion years.
The size of the planet was easy