The American Astronomical Society is a pretty awesome group of people, so they know awesome when they see it. And seen it they have, in the form of a distant planet they’re calling “Mega-Earth.”
It’s technical name is Kepler-10c, but let’s go with the much awesomer “Mega-Earth.” She’s one-of-a-kind (for now—it’s a big universe). It’s about twice the size of earth, but weighs 17 times as much, on account of being entirely rock. Scientists previously believed that solid planets the size of Mega-Earth weren’t possible, as their creation would suck in too much hydrogen, turning them into gas giants like Saturn and Jupiter. But that was before …Mega-Earth. It’s a discovery of some significance, as it opens the door for solid planet systems to develop at different rates than astronomers previously believed. To quote Center for Astrophysics researcher Dimitar Sasselov, “Finding Kepler-10c tells us that rocky planets could form much earlier than we thought. And if you can make rocks, you can make life” …
