It’s not too much to look at. The little rocky planet known as Kepler-10B is mostly just a big floating rock in space about 1.4 times larger than Earth. Still, that little discovery is a great big deal to astronomers, as Kepler-10b is the first rocky planet to be discovered outside of the solar system. That means that somewhere in space, there are planets like Earth, made of rock rather than gas giants.
Of course, finding a planet made of rock and finding a planet like earth are two different things. Still, this finding by the Kepler Space Telescope is very important, as it gives scientists hope for finding future discoveries of this type. After all, if they can find one non-gas giant planet, they can find others. Others that, unlike Kepler-1ob, may have atmosphere and be habitable.
“It’s the planetary missing link,” said University of California-Berkeley astronomer Geoff Marcy. “The amount of dimming… proves the diameter of the planet incontrovertibly. The measurements nail down the mass of the planet without any question. The density is clearly higher than that of the Earth, making this a rocky planet, the first definitive rocky planet every found.”
Tags: missing link planet, rocky planet discovered, rocky Earth-like planet discovered, Kepler-10b, Kepler Space Telescope, University of California-Berkeley, Geoff Marcy, astronomy, unusual planet, new planet discovered, earth-like planet discovered, first rocky planet outside of the solar system discovered, weird science, rocky planet