Kepler-10b exoplanet (upper left) near its parent star,artwork. The discovery of this rocky alien planet was announced on 10 January 2011. It was found by NASA's Kepler Mission,a space observatory launched in 2009 and scanning tens of thousands of stars in the Milky Way to discover Earth-like planets. Kepler-10b is the smallest rocky planet found so far outside the solar system. It has a diameter 1.4 times that of Earth,but orbits close to its parent star,making it more like Mercury in terms of surface temperature. The parent star,Kepler-10,is 560 light years from Earth,in the constellation of Draco | |
Licence : | Droits gérés |
Crédit: | Science Photo Library / Van Ravenswaay, Detlev |
Taille de l’image : | 5197 px × 3613 px |
Model Release : | Non requis |
Property Release : | Non requis |
Restrictions : | - |