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A sub-Mercury-sized exoplanet

Authors :
Barclay, Thomas
Rowe, Jason F.
Lissauer, Jack J.
Huber, Daniel
Fressin, Francois
Howell, Steve B.
Bryson, Stephen T.
Chaplin, William J.
Désert, Jean-Michel
Lopez, Eric D.
Marcy, Geoffrey W.
Mullally, Fergal
Ragozzine, Darin
Torres, Guillermo
Adams, Elisabeth R.
Agol, Eric
Barrado, David
Basu, Sarbani
Bedding, Timothy R.
Buchhave, Lars A.
Charbonneau, David
Christiansen, Jessie L.
Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jørgen
Ciardi, David
Cochran, William D.
Dupree, Andrea K.
Elsworth, Yvonne
Everett, Mark
Fischer, Debra A.
Ford, Eric B.
Fortney, Jonathan J.
Geary, John C.
Haas, Michael R.
Handberg, Rasmus
Hekker, Saskia
Henze, Christopher E.
Horch, Elliott
Howard, Andrew W.
Hunter, Roger C.
Isaacson, Howard
Jenkins, Jon M.
Karoff, Christoffer
Kawaler, Steven D.
Kjeldsen, Hans
Klaus, Todd C.
Latham, David W.
Li, Jie
Lillo-Box, Jorge
Lund, Mikkel N.
Lundkvist, Mia
Metcalfe, Travis S.
Miglio, Andrea
Morris, Robert L.
Quintana, Elisa V.
Stello, Dennis
Smith, Jeffrey C.
Still, Martin
Thompson, Susan E.
Source :
Nature, Volume 494, pp. 452-454 (2013)
Publication Year :
2013

Abstract

Since the discovery of the first exoplanet we have known that other planetary systems can look quite unlike our own. However, until recently we have only been able to probe the upper range of the planet size distribution. The high precision of the Kepler space telescope has allowed us to detect planets that are the size of Earth and somewhat smaller, but no previous planets have been found that are smaller than those we see in our own Solar System. Here we report the discovery of a planet significantly smaller than Mercury. This tiny planet is the innermost of three planets that orbit the Sun-like host star, which we have designated Kepler-37. Owing to its extremely small size, similar to that of Earth's Moon, and highly irradiated surface, Kepler-37b is probably a rocky planet with no atmosphere or water, similar to Mercury.<br />Comment: Accepted and published in Nature (2013 Feb 28). This is the submitted version of paper, merged with the Supplementary Information

Details

Database :
arXiv
Journal :
Nature, Volume 494, pp. 452-454 (2013)
Publication Type :
Report
Accession number :
edsarx.1305.5587
Document Type :
Working Paper
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11914