Discovery outta this world

Scientists have spotted one of the smallest planets ever discovered outside our solar system, a scorchinghot world larger than Mars and as dense as pure iron zooming around its home star every eight hours.

The researchers said on Thursday they managed to detect the planet, located a relatively close 31 light years from Earth, and discern some of its important traits, illustrating recent improvements in the ability to characterize smaller-sized planets beyond our solar system.

While the newly discovered “exoplanet,” called GJ 367b, is too hot to be inhabitable, finding others might reveal good candidates “for nurturing extraterrestrial life,” said astronomer Kristine Lam of the Institute of Planetary Research at the German Aerospace Center. “Searching for smaller worlds and identifying the type of planets they are” can reveal a lot, said Lam, whose findings were in the journal Science.