I have two labs on Tuesdays, which is even more exhausting than it sounds, so I went to be early last night. And woke up to find a whole new planet. You guys need to give me some warning about these things…
Anyway, the planet in question orbits a red dwarf star a mere 20 light years from Earth, has a mass of roughly five times that of Earth and an estimated radius half again Earth’s (which would mean a bit more than double the surface gravity, for those planning to set SF stories there). It orbits its star in about 84 days, which seems pretty short, but is much slower then the previously discovered Neptune-sized planet in an orbit with a 5-day period, and also puts in in the region where water ought to be liquid. Depending on what sort of atmosphere it has, they estimate the surface temperature to be between 0 and 40 C (32-104 F).
There is, of course, a news story in the Times, and also a ton of blog commentary. I particularly want to note the post at systemic, mostly because I wasn’t previously aware that there is a whole blog dedicated to extrasolar planets. Welcome to the future.
(Link via James, who else?)