Astronomers: Earth appears to be an oddity

NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has discovered planets the size of Earth since its launch in 2009, but astronomers said these new planets bear little resemblance to our own home planet. In a meeting of the American Astronomical Society on Monday, experts said Earth appears to be the odd one out. Yoram Lithwick of Northwestern University said super-Earths and mini-Neptunes that are more than two and a half times the radius of Earth “must be covered with lots and lots of gas.” Having a huge amount of gas covering their rocky core would result in extreme atmospheric pressure. David Kipping, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, also described his team’s latest discovery of a planet called KOI-314C. The planet is one of three in a mini solar system, in which the cohabitants “perturb each other frequently.” Another prospect for further research is the super-Earth exoplanet GJ 1214b, some 40 light years away, which is believed to be covered with clouds, but lacks water, methane or carbon dioxide.

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