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Smallest known solar system
Jan. 12th, 2012 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
steorraThe smallest solar system yet discovered, including the smallest known extrasolar planets, has recently been announced.
Here is a news release from NASA.
And here is a longer one from Caltech.
The three planets are all smaller than earth in diameter; the smallest is about the size of Mars. They orbit a red dwarf star whose diameter not even twice as big as Jupiter's, although it'll be a lot more massive. (Neither of the articles gives an estimate of the mass of the red dwarf star that I can see.) And the distances of the planets from their star are similar to those of Jupiter's moons from Jupiter, making it seem almost more comparable to Jupiter + moons than to Sun + planets.
Here is a news release from NASA.
And here is a longer one from Caltech.
The three planets are all smaller than earth in diameter; the smallest is about the size of Mars. They orbit a red dwarf star whose diameter not even twice as big as Jupiter's, although it'll be a lot more massive. (Neither of the articles gives an estimate of the mass of the red dwarf star that I can see.) And the distances of the planets from their star are similar to those of Jupiter's moons from Jupiter, making it seem almost more comparable to Jupiter + moons than to Sun + planets.
