Discover Mega-Earth: Kepler-10c 17x Heavier Than Earth

[Greg Bernhardt]

'Godzilla of Earths': Alien Planet 17 Times Heavier Than Our World Discovered

BOSTON — Scientists have just discovered the "Godzilla of Earths" — a new type of huge and rocky alien world about 560 light-years from Earth.

Dubbed a "mega-Earth," the exoplanet Kepler-10c weighs 17 times as much as Earth and it circles a sunlike star in the constellation Draco. The mega-Earth is rocky and also bigger than "super-Earths," which are a class of planets that are slightly bigger than Earth.

http://www.space.com/26085-godzilla-mega-earth-kepler-10c-aas224.html

 

[Drakkith]

Whew... it's quite a monster, isn't it?

 

[Mordred]

yeesh that is a big one thanks for posting it

 

[Ophiolite]

So, it is the same order of magnitude as the rocky core thought to lie at the heart of gas giants. Might this be a failed gas giant whose core formed after gas was swept from the system at the T-Tauri stage of development?