Spitzer detects shadow of 'super-Earth' in front of nearby star
Thursday, May 5, 2011 - 08:31
in Astronomy & Space
NASA's Spitzer satellite has detected the crossing of a solid planet in front of a star located at only 42 light-years in the constellation Cancer. Thanks to this detection, astronomers know that this "super-Earth" measures 2.1 times the size of our Earth. This is the smallest exoplanet detected in the neighborhood of our Sun.