Israeli scientists help discover new planet outside our solar systemIsraeli researchers were part of a team of scientists who discovered a new planet outside of our solar system.
The announcement of the discovery was made at a conference in Paris by the satellite’s scientific team.
The planet, called CoRoT-Exo-7b, after the French CoRoT satellite used to make the discovery, has a radius 70 percent larger, and a mass four times greater than that of Earth. It is the smallest of the 330 planets discovered outside of the solar system, and is 390 light-years away. It revolves around its star once every 20 hours and the surface temperature is over 1,000 degrees Celsius ? too hot for life.
Dr. Shai Zucker of the geophysics and planetary sciences department of Tel Aviv University, and Prof. Zvi Mazeh and his student Avi Shprorer from the university’s astrophysics department took part in the discovery.