World News Earth-size planets found orbiting another star

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In a milestone hailed by scientists as a key step toward finding another Earth-like world, astronomers Dec. 20 announced the discovery of two blazingly hot planets roughly the size of Earth some 950 light-years distant.

The discovery "demonstrates for the first time that Earth-size planets exist around other stars and that we can detect them," said Francois Fressin, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who led the discovery team.

The two planets orbit a star much like our sun, but they whiz around it so fast and so close that their surfaces sizzle like frying pans.

"They're way too hot to be anything like our Earth," said Sara Seager, a member of the discovery team. (AP)

太陽系外に地球サイズの惑星発見

NASAは12月20日、太陽系外に地球とほぼ同じサイズの惑星を２つ発見したと発表した。

Shukan ST: JANUARY 13, 2012

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