Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 4:21 pm
15:16 16 May 2007
Strange alien world made of 'hot ice'
David Shiga (newscientist.com) -- A bizarre world of scorching hot ice shrouded in a steamy atmosphere may have been found, according to new observations. Characterising the Neptune-size planet is an important milestone on the way to detecting and characterising Earth-like planets that could harbour life.
The planet, which orbits a small star located 30 light years from Earth called GJ 436, was actually discovered in 2004 using the radial velocity method. At that point, astronomers deduced that it was about as massive as Neptune.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/2zgr9k
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