Orbit of Kepler-10b exoplanet round its star,artwork. The discovery of this rocky 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. The parent star seen here,Kepler-10,is similar to our Sun but older. It is 560 light years away,in the constellation of Draco | |
Licence : | Droits gérés |
Crédit: | Science Photo Library / Berry, Dana / Kepler Mission / NASA |
Taille de l’image : | 3977 px × 2238 px |
Model Release : | Non requis |
Property Release : | Non requis |
Restrictions : | - |