Astronomy

Solar Systems

Distant Planet

An international team of astronomers have found the best evidence yet for a rocky planet - not too much bigger than Earth - orbiting another star.

The parent star - 500 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros - is some 1.5 billion years old. The planet orbits its star at a distance of less then 2 million miles, giving it a "year" that lasts about 20 hours.

With an orbit that close, the team estimates that the temperatures on the planet´s surface range somewhere between 1,527 to 2,327 degrees Celsius on the sunlit portion (think molten!) and a frosty -200 degrees C on the night portion.

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