<p>An exoplanet is a planet outside the solar system.<br />The planet, named 55 Cancri e, is 60 percent larger than Earth and eight times as massive. Twice as dense as Earth - almost as dense as lead - it is the densest solid planet known, according to the latest findings.<br /><br />A team of astronomers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of British Columbia (UBC), the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics and the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) were involved in research.<br /><br />The research, based on observations from Canada's Microvariability and Oscillations of Stars (MOST) space telescope, was released online at arXiv.org, scheduled for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.<br /><br />MOST is a Canadian space agency mission.<br />Approximately 40 light years from Earth, 55 Cancri e orbits a star called 55 Cancri A so closely that its year is less than 18 hours long.<br /><br />"You could set dates on this world by your wrist watch, not a calendar," says UBC astronomer Jaymie Matthews, according to an UBC statement. <br /><br />The temperature on the planet's surface could be as high as 2,700 degrees Celsius.<br />"Because of the infernal heat, it's unlikely that 55 Cancri e has an atmosphere," says lead author Josh Winn of MIT. "So this is not the type of place where exobiologists would look for life."<br /><br />While the planet is not visible, even through a telescope, its host star, 55 Cancri A, can be observed with the naked eye for the next two months on a clear dark night. <br /></p>
<p>An exoplanet is a planet outside the solar system.<br />The planet, named 55 Cancri e, is 60 percent larger than Earth and eight times as massive. Twice as dense as Earth - almost as dense as lead - it is the densest solid planet known, according to the latest findings.<br /><br />A team of astronomers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of British Columbia (UBC), the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics and the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) were involved in research.<br /><br />The research, based on observations from Canada's Microvariability and Oscillations of Stars (MOST) space telescope, was released online at arXiv.org, scheduled for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.<br /><br />MOST is a Canadian space agency mission.<br />Approximately 40 light years from Earth, 55 Cancri e orbits a star called 55 Cancri A so closely that its year is less than 18 hours long.<br /><br />"You could set dates on this world by your wrist watch, not a calendar," says UBC astronomer Jaymie Matthews, according to an UBC statement. <br /><br />The temperature on the planet's surface could be as high as 2,700 degrees Celsius.<br />"Because of the infernal heat, it's unlikely that 55 Cancri e has an atmosphere," says lead author Josh Winn of MIT. "So this is not the type of place where exobiologists would look for life."<br /><br />While the planet is not visible, even through a telescope, its host star, 55 Cancri A, can be observed with the naked eye for the next two months on a clear dark night. <br /></p>