Astronomers have broken the record for the smallest planet discovered beyond our Solar System.
The planet has been named Kepler 37b and it is only slightly larger than our Moon.
It was discovered by the Kepler telescope. A planet that is outside our solar system is called an exoplant.
To find exoplanets astronomers must analyse tiny changes in light from the start that the planet is orbiting. They then use this information to find its size.
The record for smallest exoplanet is being broken regularly at the moment as astronomers get better at finding them with the Kepler space telescope.
The telescope stares at a fixed part of the sky, trying to detect tiny dips in stars’ light that happens when planets pass in front of them, and has been recording data for almost four years.
1. Find quote from the main person in this news article?
6 Responses
What about Pluto???
This one is smaller and is probably in another solar system. pluto is the smallest planet in our solar system
mmmmmmeeeeeeeeaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnn
that is bigger than the sun
AE WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER PLANTS WHAT ABOUT EARTH WHAT ABOUT US
whats the smallest planet discovered so far