Astronomers over the Moon about New Planet
Imagine a planet with a year that lasts a single day and a temperature much higher than on Earth. It may not sound much like home, but For NASA astronomers, this is as good as it gets.
In January 2011, scientists from NASA’s Kepler project announced they had found a tiny, rocky planet called Kepler-10b. It is very close to its star and moves around it very fast, so humans could not live there. Nevertheless, it is only 1.4 times bigger than the Earth. It is also made of iron and rock like the Earth – and this is what makes it so exciting. Most of the planets so far discovered outside of our solar system have been gas giants similar to our own Jupiter. The discovery of Kepler-10b shows that Earth-like planets really do exist outside of our solar system – and, one day, we could find a second Earth.
天文學家喜獲新行星蹤跡
當你得知有顆行星繞著恆星公轉一周僅需一天，且溫度遠高於地球，是否直覺地認為它不適合人類居住？然而，對於美國太空總署的天文學家而言，發現新行星總是令人雀躍不已。
2011年1月，美國太空總署參與「克卜勒計畫」的科學家宣佈發現一顆微小的岩質行星，命名為「克卜勒10b」。它的運行軌道非常接近主恆星且移動極為快速，並不適合人類居住。然而，令人驚喜的是它的體積相當於地球的1.4倍，就像地球一樣由鐵和岩石構成。目前已知的大多數太陽系外行星皆為類似木星的氣態行星，「克卜勒10b」的出現證實了類地球行星確實存在於太陽系之外，有朝一日，我們極有可能發現第二個地球。
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