“The impact of space activities is nothing less than the galvanizing of hope and imagination for human life continuum into a future of infinite possibility.” -Vanna Bonta
Check it out Superforesters, feast your wide-eyed puppies on this beauty of a new planet. CoRoT-7b isn’t just your ordinary, run of the mill plutoid or eclipsing binary extrasolar celestial object. No no no. This burning baby is the first ever confirmed “Earthlike” planet outside our solar system!
Okay, now before you get all excited, let me clarify the relative scale of how astronomists define “earthlike”. What we mean is that CoRoT-7b has a rocky composition similar to that of earth. The planet is 5 times the mass of our pale blue dot. And it’s orbit flies so close to its own sun that half the planet’s surface is in a constant state of explosion, while the other side is frozen over. Fire and Ice. Cool stuff. Reminds me of a wonderful Robert Frost poem…
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As far as Astronomy goes, this is HUGE NEWS! According to CNN: “The planet was first detected early in 2008 by the CoRoT satellite, a 30-centimeter space telescope launched by the European Space Agency in December 2006, specifically with the mission of detecting rocky planets outside the solar system. At least 42 scientists at 17 institutions on three continents worked on the project.
They were helped by the fact that CoRoT-7b is relatively close to Earth — about 500 light years away, in the constellation of Monoceros, the Unicorn.
Fire and Ice. Whether worlds are ending, coming into being, or just being discovered by our romantic, hope filled eyes… I think I know enough of love to say that for discoveries CoRoT-7b is Great! And will totally suffice.
Happy weekend all!
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