Is it me? Larger, smaller, real, imaginary?

[whatever]

What's wrong with this story? Who's bigger? Who's gonna buy my house so I can move the hell out of this...pre-USSR teritory


Earth-like planet discovered 50 light-years away
Planet is smallest known outside our solar system

By Robert Roy Britt
SPACE.com
Thursday, August 26, 2004 Posted: 1425 GMT (2225 HKT)

(SPACE.com) -- In a discovery that has left one expert stunned, European astronomers have found one of the smallest planets known outside our solar system, a world about 14 times the mass of our own around a star much like the sun.

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But this is no typical Earth. It completes its tight orbit in less than 10 days, compared to the 365 required for our year. Its daytime face would be scorched.

The planet's surface conditions aren't known, said Portuguese researcher Nuno Santos, who led the discovery. "However, we can expect it to be quite hot, given the proximity to the star."

Hot as in around 1,160 degrees Fahrenheit (900 Kelvin), Santos said.

Still, the discovery is a significant advance in technology: No planet so small

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At 14 times the mass of Earth, the newfound planet -- circling a star similar in size and brightness to our sun -- is about as heavy as Uranus, a world of gas and ice and the smallest giant planet in our solar system. Theorists say 14 Earth-masses is roughly the upper limit for a planet to possibly remain rocky,

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"Otherwise the planet would have become much more massive," Santos said via e-mail.

"This object is therefore likely to be a planet with a rocky core surrounded by a small gaseous envelope and would therefore qualify as a super-Earth," the European team said in a statement.

In a telephone interview, Boss of the Carnegie Institution said the European's analysis of the data represents a "reasonable argument." He said the planet had to form inside the orbit of the larger planet
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[outgirl]

Could you imagine being the person who discovered another solar system?

I seriously wish news like this excited me more. I guess I've just seen too many Stars Wars flicks. I just think that when we do discover life beyond our own existance, we'll just make war with them too. If those of us on Earth can't stop killing each other, why would relations with beings from another world be any different.