«We can use Mars, a planet that we know a lot about, as a laboratory for studying
rocky planets outside our solar system, which we don't know much about yet.»
In January Kepler astronomers announced the discovery of the first definitively
rocky planet outside our solar system, Kepler - 10 b.
The planet, which is about 1.6 times the size of Earth, is also the nearest confirmed
rocky planet outside our solar system.
Not exact matches
An analysis of
planets outside the
solar system suggests that most hot,
rocky exoplanets started out more like gassy Neptunes.
Fridlund helped design COROT (for convection, rotation, and planetary transits), ESA's early entry in the race to find
rocky, Earth - like
planets outside our
solar system.
This artist's rendition shows one possible appearance for the
planet HD 219134b, the nearest
rocky exoplanet found to date
outside our
solar system.
CoRoT - 7 b, the first potential
rocky planet detected
outside the
Solar system, may be the remnant core of a Saturn - mass gas giant that had its atmosphere and lower gas metal layers burned off (more)