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4/29/2011 Astronomers Zero in on "Super-Exotic S…

A n international team of astronomers hav e rev ealed details of a "super-ex otic" ex oplanet named 55 Cancri e,
that is 60 per cent larger in diameter than Earth but eight times as massiv e. Twice as dense as Earth –- almost
as dense as lead –- it is the densest solid planet known, according to a team led by astronomers from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology , the Univ ersity of British Columbia, the Harv ard ‑Smithsonian Center
for A strophy sics and the Univ ersity of California at Santa Cruz.
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www.QuantumJumping.com A pprox imately 40 light y ears from Earth, 55 Cancri e orbits a star –-
called 55 Cancri A –- so closely that its y ear is less than 1 8 hours long.
"Y ou could set dates on this world by y our wrist watch, not a calendar,"
say s UBC astronomer Jay mie Matthews.
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The temperature on the planet's surface could be as high as 2,7 00 degrees
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www.Groupon.com/Madison Celsius. "Because of the infernal heat, it's unlikely that 55 Cancri e has an
atmosphere," say s lead author Josh Winn of MIT. "So this is not the ty pe of
place where ex obiologists would look for life."

Howev er, 55 Cancri e is the ty pe of place ex oplanetary scientists will be eager to "v isit" with their telescopes,
say s Winn. "The brightness of the host star makes many ty pes of sensitiv e measurements possible, so 55
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4/29/2011 Astronomers Zero in on "Super-Exotic S…
say s Winn. "The brightness of the host star makes many ty pes of sensitiv e measurements possible, so 55
Cancri e is the perfect laboratory to test theories of planet formation, ev olution and surv iv al."

While the planet isn't v isible, ev en through a telescope, its host star, 55 Cancri A , can be observ ed with the
naked ey e for the nex t two months on a clear dark night.

"On this world –- the densest solid planet found any where so far, in the Solar Sy stem or bey ond-– y ou would
weigh three times heav ier than y ou do on Earth. By day , the sun would look 60 times bigger and shine 3,600
times brighter in the sky ," say s Matthews, MOST Mission Scientist and second author on the paper.

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The first planet discov ered around 55 Cancri A – designated "b" – was found by a California-based team in

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