A team of astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has announced the discovery of a new type of planet, dubbed "mega-earth" that could host life .
The new and remote planet, known as Kepler-10c, is 17 times the mass of Earth and more than twice the diameter of our planet. It is a solid and rocky world and, according to experts, never seen before. Due to its enormous size, it is much larger than any of the super- lands discovered so far, hence the need for the integration of a new category: the “mega-lands”.
The star that orbits this mega-earth is very similar to our Sun and its orbit is 45 days . It is located about 560 light years away , in the constellation Draco, and as its name suggests, Kepler 10c, it was detected by the instruments of the Kepler space probe, a true planet hunter that has already located around 3,000 worlds. at the extrasolar level.
The discovery of this new type of planet leads astronomers to think that in Kepler 10c, which could be twice the age of Earth (about 11 billion years), life could arise and that the Universe was already capable of forming rocky worlds much earlier than we thought.
Image credit: CfA
