Evolving Astronomy: A Super-Earth Only 42 Light Years Away

In the recent decades it could be argued that Astronomy has been more about "far" than "small". Nowadays though the field of extrasolar planets is exploding. The field started with Jupiter type gas giants with orbits of a few days (very close to their stars), but now planets further away as well as smaller planets still close are being discovered.

A recent story in Scientific American details one such discover. The discovery of a planet estimated to have a diameter only 2.68 times the diameter of the Earth and a mass of 6.55 Earths orbiting a Red Dwarf star only 44 lightyears away (basically our backyard). The planet orbits it's star every 38 hours (obviously it's very close) but it's not a terribly hot planet (the star is a small red dwarf which are relatively cool stars). Still, it's unlikely the planet has liquid water at that distance unless it has a large atmosphere producing sufficient pressure.

Here is the Article from Scientific American