Corot-7b, a fast- and close-orbiting planet of a distant star (Corot-7a) that has already been in the specialty science press for some time, is back and big time. It previously was seen as perhaps the least massive planet confirmed to orbit another star, with a heft just a few times that of Earth. Supposition was that it might be a solid-surfaced “super Earth.”  This week’s update is compelling new data from European researchers that it indeed has but a thin atmosphere over a solid, or at least not gaseous, surface. It has the density of rock – melted, or solid.  They are calling this the best confirmation for another planet that is not a gas giant like Jupiter or Saturn in which any solid surface would lie thousands of miles under an atmosphere squeezed to such density would hardly resemble air.

The world was discovered by users of a European satellite that, among other things, looks for planets transiting their stars’ faces. COROT stands for COnvection, ROtation, and planetary Transits…. All that for a non-word like Corot? The leader of the team now reporting followup study is Didier Queloz, half the team that reported the first extrasolar planet that turned out to be real, 51 Peg b, in 1995.

At the AP Seth Borenstein writes it is, finally, an extrasolar place to stand “if only it weren’t so broiling hot,” and learns from a source, “..they’re calling it the lava planet.” At the Times in the UK, Mark Henderson gets right to the all-purpose point some reporters find for any story about other planets. He avers  in the lede that it “shortens the odds on extraterrestrial life being discovered.” It’s his angle and he’s sticking to it. And he is not alone.

The news arose at a meeting in Potsdam. The formal report is in press at Astronomy and Astrophysics journal.

Other stories:

• Science News – Ron Cowen: Rock Solid Planet ; One of the first stories to land – and it handles the life angle fully in context, gently and tentatively. More important, it notes that, pretty soon, many more should be on its list.
• LiveScience – Clara Moskowitz: First Rocky World Confirmed Around Another Star ;  She puts the alien life angle where it sits more comfortably – way down deep in a passage putting this into proper astrobiology perspective.
• Mail (UK) David Derbyshire: More proof we may not be alone: Astronomers confirm first planet made of rock discovered outside our solar system; That’s a weird hed – proof is such a rare thing for anything, and to waste it on a maybe? Odd.
• Telegraph (UK) Lucy Cockcroft: COROT-7b: Earth-like planet discovered outside Solar System; Yes, and elephants are gnat-like – except for size, metabolism, structure, life style….; But they both have, uh, skin? Story’s theme is, again..ALIENS! ;
• BBC: distant world “has rocky surface’ ;
• Reuters – Kate Kelland: Scientists say “super-Earth” has rocky surface ; “Super-Earth” is a term  employed, like “hot jupiter,” among the experts. So it’s fine in a hed. And kudos:   not a jot here about extraterrestrial life that can’t exist here but maybe it raises the odds and all that enticing, easily-said, yet empty verbiage.
• Sky & Telescope – Kelly Beatty: COROT-7B, the Lava Planet ; Expertly done as one expects from Beatty, no shenanigans, and some well-informed potshots at claims this is the smallest exoplanet yet (‘tho I’d quibble with lumping the pulsar planets with regular stellar planets).
• Scientific American – Paul Sutherland: Solid evidence for Earthlike world ; Well, density is Earthlike ;

Grist for the Mill: ESO Press Release ;  COROT mission page ;

Charlie Petit

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at 2:52 pm and is filed under Science Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.