Rocky Planet found outside our Solar System!

[mrstickball]

stof said:
Wow crazyness.

As for the "heat/cold border issue" that was my first thought as well, but with no atmosphere, The only thing that would transfer heat would be the planet's surface. The space would go from 2000 C in the sunlight to -326 in the dark an inch or two later. but surface would take a while to go from molten to freezing again.

So It probably wouldn't be a great place for our first out of Solar system colony. Come on in! "It's -326 degrees outside, but the ground'll burn your boots off!"

Of course, Any ship that attempted to get close to the planet would have melted long before it got there too.

Gee. Astronomy is so cool when you have someone else to do the years and years of searching and discovery for you.

stof - Right. I was thinking the same thing. Since there's no atmosphere, the only insulator of heat would be the surface. Now, having said that, I would wonder if the surface would radiate some of the heat further into the night side to allow for a somewhat temperate band on the darkside. Since it's tidally locked, this area should be easy to find through thermal imaging.

Of course, the question is if such an area would be useful for habitation. We have far better candidates for research and colonization in our own solar system.