‘Godzilla of Earths’ discovered
Astronomers announced Monday that they have discovered a new type of planet — a rocky world weighing 17 times as much as Earth. Theorists believed such a world couldn’t form because anything so hefty would grab hydrogen gas as it grew and become a Jupiter-like gas giant. This planet, though, is all solids and much bigger than previously discovered “super-Earths,” making it a “mega-Earth.” “We were very surprised when we realized what we had found,” said astronomer Xavier Dumusque of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), who led the data analysis and made the discovery. “This is the Godzilla of Earths!” added CfA researcher Dimitar Sasselov, director of the Harvard Origins of Life Initiative. “But unlike the movie monster, Kepler-10c has positive implications for life.” The team’s finding was presented Monday in a press conference at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). The newfound mega-Earth, Kepler-10c, circles a sunlike star once every...