New planet discovered

[swright81076]

It appears that an earth sized planet has been discovered by the European Space Agency. What is amazing about this planet is that it orbits Alpha Centauri, our closest neighbour, a mere 4 light years away.
Here's a link to the article:
http://www.centurylink.net/news/read.php?rip_id=<DA1UT98O2@news.ap.org>&ps=1011

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[sandbender]

"...a mere 4 light years away..."

Interesting stuff, thanks for posting.

Just so folks can wrap their heads around a distance of "a mere 4 light years", imagine holding a golf ball in your hand, if the earth was the size of that golfball then at the same scale the moon is about the size of a pea and two and a half feet away while the sun would be nine feet in diamater and three hundred and twenty yards away. Alpha Centauri at these scales would be roughly forty thousand miles away.

Our local environment is quite crowded though, if we were to imagine a sphere about fifteen light years in diameter centered on our sun then that sphere would contain fifty stars.

 

[Fat Rog]

Wouldn't fancy a day trip there though:

"Life cannot survive the 2,200 degree heat of the planet, so close to its star that it circles it every few days."