WASHINGTON — A NASA telescope has found the smallest planet outside our solar system and it is rocky just like Earth.
But it is way too hot for any life. One side of the planet is about 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit. It is 20 times closer to its star than Mercury is to our sun. The planet is called Kepler-10b after the telescope that found it.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientist Natalie Batalha said the planet is about 1.4 times the size of Earth and has a mass about 4 1/2 times our planet’s. Astronomers have found other planets outside our solar system that are closer in mass to Earth but none this small in diameter. And unlike the majority of the so-called exoplanets detected so far, Kepler-10b is solid and not gaseous.
“It’s something you can stand on,” Batalha said.
