'Mega Earth' Discovered In Distant Star System

A rocky planet dubbed a "mega earth" has been discovered in a distant star system.

The planet, known as Kepler-10c, is so old that theoretically it should have become a "Jupiter-like gas giant" - but has remained solid like Earth.

It is twice as old as Earth and has 17 times the mass, and its discovery suggests potentially life-bearing rocky planets could be far more abundant than previously thought.

"This is the Godzilla of Earths, but unlike the movie monster, Kepler-10c has positive implications for life," said Dr Dimitar Sasselov, from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

"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."

The Kepler-10 star system is an estimated 11 billion years old, which means it formed less than three billion years after the Big Bang.

Earth is roughly 4.5 billion years old.

Kepler-10c circles its equivalent of the Sun - part of the Draco constellation - every 45 days.

It has at least one neighbour, known as Kepler-10b, which is a scorching "lava world" that navigates its star in just 20 hours.

Observers at the Italian Galileo National Telescope in the Canary Islands realised the planet was made from rock - not gas - after discovering it had 17 times the mass of Earth.

"We were very surprised when we realised what we had found," said astronomer Dr Xavier Dumusque, also from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who led the research.

"Kepler-10c didn't lose its atmosphere over time. It's massive enough to have held onto one if it ever had it - it must have formed the way we see it now."

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