“You can spend too much time wondering which of identical twins is the more alike.” –Robert Brault
Earlier today, NASA announced the “most Earth-like exoplanet yet,” a planet just 60% larger in radius than our own, orbiting a star of the same spectral class as our Sun and with an almost identical orbital period: 385 days.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech/R. Hurt.
But is this really the most Earth-like planet we’ve discovered? It’s significantly larger and five times as massive, and may actually be more like Neptune than like Earth. In fact, other properties may be much more important if we truly want to find a “twin” to Earth: a rocky planet teeming with advanced chemical-based life.
Image credit: Museum Mensch und Natur in München / Wikimedia Commons user Ghedoghedo.
What do we have versus what did we find? Come discover it all on today’s Throwback Thursday!
from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1LyWshT
“You can spend too much time wondering which of identical twins is the more alike.” –Robert Brault
Earlier today, NASA announced the “most Earth-like exoplanet yet,” a planet just 60% larger in radius than our own, orbiting a star of the same spectral class as our Sun and with an almost identical orbital period: 385 days.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech/R. Hurt.
But is this really the most Earth-like planet we’ve discovered? It’s significantly larger and five times as massive, and may actually be more like Neptune than like Earth. In fact, other properties may be much more important if we truly want to find a “twin” to Earth: a rocky planet teeming with advanced chemical-based life.
Image credit: Museum Mensch und Natur in München / Wikimedia Commons user Ghedoghedo.
What do we have versus what did we find? Come discover it all on today’s Throwback Thursday!
from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1LyWshT
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