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Kepler recently found the first confirmed small, rocky planet:
http://www.universetoday.com/82362/kepler-discovers-it’s-smallest-and-first-rocky-planet/
The arxiv preprint was released a few days ago:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.0605
The planet is remarkably small - only about 1.5x the size of Earth and about 4.5 Earth masses. It is also veryg dense - around 8.8 gm/cc, or about the equivalent of solid nickel. It is also quite toasty - roughly 2500 degrees at noon. This is not surprising given it orbits a sunlike star at 1/20 the distance of mercury from our sun. The exciting thing is it shows Kepler can potentially detect earth-like planets.
http://www.universetoday.com/82362/kepler-discovers-it’s-smallest-and-first-rocky-planet/
The arxiv preprint was released a few days ago:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.0605
The planet is remarkably small - only about 1.5x the size of Earth and about 4.5 Earth masses. It is also veryg dense - around 8.8 gm/cc, or about the equivalent of solid nickel. It is also quite toasty - roughly 2500 degrees at noon. This is not surprising given it orbits a sunlike star at 1/20 the distance of mercury from our sun. The exciting thing is it shows Kepler can potentially detect earth-like planets.
