Earthlike planet Corot-7b is being vaporized by its star

William Atkins
Monday, 11 January 2010 19:36

Science - Space

NASA astronomer Brian Jackson has presented information that the exosolar planet Corot-7b is vaporating due to its decreasing distance to its parent star. Its molten surface is so hot that the planet is slowly evaporating due to extreme temperatures of upwards of 1,980 degrees Celsius (3,600 degree Fahrenheit).


Dr. Brian Jackson presented his and his colleagues' findings at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (215AAS), which was held between January 3 and 7, 2010, at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park in Washington, D.C.

Corot-7b (or CoRoT-7b), previously named COROT-Exo-7b, is considered by astronomers to be the exosolar planet (exoplanet) that is most like our own home planet of Earth—that is, so far discovered.

An exoplanet is any planet that orbits any star other than the Sun (which excludes Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune from the grouping).

This exoplanet is orbiting the yellow dwarf star Corot-7 (or CoRoT-7), which is located about 480 light-years away from our Solar System in the constellation Monoceros.

The star's age is estimated to be about 1.5 billion years, whereas our Sun is estimated to be about 4.4 billion years old. Corot-7 is just smaller than the Sun.

Corot-7b is also the smallest of the exoplanets so far discovered. It was discovered by a French-led team using the French/ESA COROT (COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits) spacecraft. Its discovery was reported in early 2009.

For additional information on its discovery as the smallest exoplanet so far, please read the March 4, 2009 iTWire article “Huge discovery of tiniest exoplanet.”

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