back to article Boffins spot Luna-sized exoplanet

Exoplanet hunters have made their smallest find ever, Kepler-37b, which is only fractionally larger than Earth's moon and rather smaller than Mercury. The planet and its star are about 210 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra. In a Letter to Nature, over 50 co-authors explain how the Kepler spacecraft helped them …

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  1. Tim Starling

    Plenty of shade

    Kepler 37b might be tidally locked to its star. If so, half the planet would be in shade.

  2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    Staggering

    An object the size of the Moon from 210 light years away.

    This seems a pretty big improvement from nothing below a Jupiter sized world.

    Thumbs up what is robably some very tricky signal processing.

    1. ravenviz Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: Staggering

      One would assume the detection prospects are highly magnified due to their proximity to the parent star. Might be a lot more difficult to detect bodies the same size in the respective habitable / water=liquid zone.

  3. Richard Wharram

    No need to pack a duffle coat then?

    Maybe a knotted hankie?

    1. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart

      Re: No need to pack a duffle coat then?

      A knotted hankie? Stop it!!!! My Brain hurts

  4. Rick 17
    Mushroom

    Spectacular view....

    That small (low-gravity), and that close to it's sun?

    I wonder if you'd get some outgassing - kind of like the biggest comet you've ever seen, outgassing (in imagination anyway) iron, silicates, etc, etc. Pity I'll never see some pics ...

  5. Peter Ford

    What about a?

    So there's Kepler-37b,c and d

    Are they expecting to find another one even closer?

    1. Shrimpling

      Re: What about a?

      In extrasolar planet naming Kepler-37a is the host star, planets are then named in order of discovery.

      If one closer to the star was found it would be called Kepler-37e

  6. Callam McMillan
    Joke

    Hot and Nasty...

    ... Does that mean Ryanair will be flying there soon?

    1. VinceH

      Re: Hot and Nasty...

      "Does that mean Ryanair will be flying there soon?"

      If they did, it would probably be to a spaceport in another nearby star system, which they'd call Kepler-37 on the booking page on the basis that it's within 50 light years of the named destination.

  7. Ru
    Meh

    "in the constellation Lyra"

    That's a little... imprecise.

    There are apparently 29 stars in the area of the sky that contains Lyra, some of which are substantially closer than 200ly so that's a pretty big volume of space.

    1. ravenviz Silver badge
      Joke

      Re: "in the constellation Lyra"

      That's just peanuts compared to, er, hang on...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I for one welcome

    Our Pyroville overlords.

    AC/DC in case the "Doctor Who" fans get this reference and hunt me down...

  9. teebie

    Awwww

    look at the widdle planet

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