Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Rocky planets

Included in the findings are five new rocky planets ranging in size from ten to eighty percent larger than Earth. Two of the new rocky worlds, dubbed Kepler-99b and Kepler-406b, are both forty percent larger in size than Earth and have a density similar to lead. The planets orbit their host stars in less than five and three days respectively, making these worlds too hot for life as we know it.

"density of lead?" I think what this really means is that their estimate of the radius of a relatively dark object light-years away is 20% low. And the team studying the Kepler results probably know it. The writers at SciTechDaily didn't.

I'm still astonished at how much we've learned about planets since I first started ready Bradbury.

FWIW, when I tried to read the report the first time I fumble-fingered the Back button when the PDF wasn't done loading. I promptly clicked Forward, but that was probably a mistake, because I was inadvertently imitating the "prospective loading" of some browsers that triggers the arXiv anti-robot software. I wound up blocked until they responded to my email.

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