Newly Discovered "Fried" Planets Are Smallest Ever
Fried Planets Two scorched planets, both smaller than Earth, survived being swallowed up by their star when it mushroomed into a red giant. Stéphane Charpinet/Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et PlanétologieYesterday's smallest-ever exoplanets held that record for just about 24 hours Two more little Earth-sized planets have been discovered orbiting a distant star, astronomers said Wednesday, and their bizarre baked death may foreshadow the destiny of our own solar system. The publication comes a day after the announcement of the first Earth-sized planets ever confirmed outside our solar system. Already firmly in the exoplanet age, we're apparently entering an era of exo-Earths, full of small worlds with a past and a future very much like our own. These newest small worlds have been swallowed up by their bloated red giant of a star and lived to tell the tale. One planet is 0.76 times the radius of Earth and one...