1st Extra-Solar Planet Like Earth Found

Astronomers have found the first planet like Earth outside the solar system — a rocky and hot body that orbits a sun-like star in the direction of Aquarius.

The planet — 7 1/2 times Earth’s size with temperatures ranging from 400 to 750 degrees and a 1.94-day orbit around star Gliese 876 — is 15 light years from Earth, researchers told the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va., on Monday.

This is the smallest extrasolar planet yet detected and the first of a new class of rocky terrestrial planets, said Carnegie Institution researcher Paul Butler. It’s like Earth’s bigger cousin.

Astronomers, who reported their find to Astrophysical Journal, said the planet is too hot to support life as we know it.

Aided by improvements to Hawaii’s Keck Observatory, researchers deduced the planet’s existence from its wobble and said they expect to find more smaller-mass planets.

We’re getting closer and closer to finding Earths, said Steven Vogt of the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Researchers said the planet has no solar system counterpart. It falls between Earth — the largest of known rocky planets — and Uranus — the smallest known gas giant.