Size discovered planet is about half the size of Neptune
NASA
Moscow, 8 February – AIF-Moscow.
With the help of a telescope “Kepler” and the HARPS spectrograph, scientists were able to detect in the constellation of Aries “impossible” planet, which theoretically would have to be a likeness of Neptune, but its density indicates that it is a giant “twin” of the Earth, reports RIA Novosti with reference to the Cornell University.
In recent years astronomers have detected outside the Solar system hundreds of exoplanets, whose diameter is several times the diameter of Earth. While such discoveries did not cease debate about what are such planets — so-called “supertall”, that is, the large rocky planets, or small semblances of Neptune and other gas giants.
As explained by Nestor Espinoza from Catholic University of Chile in Santiago, the problem is that it is extremely difficult to accurately measure the mass of such planets. However, on the basis of analysis collected over 10 years of data, scientists eventually came to the conclusion that all the planets whose radius is 1.6 times higher than half of the diameter of the Earth, are a mini-Neptune, not a supertall.
However, the new discovery disproves this theory. Planet BD+20594b in the constellation of Aries twice the Earth’s diameter, and its mass is greater than earth 16 times. The density of this planet earth is significantly higher, eliminating the possibility that it may be analogous to Neptune. According to the calculations of Espinoza and his colleagues, on this planet there is no atmosphere and it is possible sushestvovanie liquid water and therefore life on it.
