Video: NASA Planet Hunters Announce Smallest Exoplanet Ever Found, Just 560 Light Years Away
Kepler 10b NASA artist's concept of Kepler-10 from the surface of planet 10b. NASAMore exoplanet discoveries are pending, as Kepler team approaches deadline to publish data A tiny world of molten rock, orbiting scorchingly close to its host star, is the smallest planet ever discovered outside our solar system, NASA announced today. And it's likely only the first in a parade of planet discoveries to be announced this spring by the Kepler Space Telescope team. Kepler-10b, as the new world is called, is a rocky, dense and hellish planet just 1.4 times the size of Earth. It's not in the Goldilocks zone, however - it's much too close to its star for life to exist. It's so hot (about 2,500 degrees F at the surface) that boiled iron and silicates are flowing into the stellar wind, much like a comet's tail. Kepler-10b is more than 20 times closer to its star than Mercury...