Explanation:
Why might you want to visit super-earth Cancri 55 e?
Its extremely hot climate would be a deterrent, as
mornings on this world might bring fresh lava flows.
Discovered in 2004, the planet
Cancri 55 e
has twice the diameter of our Earth and about 10 times Earth's mass.
The planet orbits its 40 light-year distant
Sun-like star
well inside the orbit of Mercury, so close that it is
tidally locked,
meaning that it always keeps the same face toward the object it orbits -- like our
Moon does as it orbits the Earth.
Astronomers have
recently measured
temperature changes on this exoplanet using
infrared observations
with the
Spitzer Space Telescope.
Given these observations, an artist created the
featured video
with educated guesses about what one revolution of Cancri 55 e might look like.
Depicted are full phase, when the planet is fully illuminated, and new (dark)
phase when it
passes near the line of sight to Earth.
The illustrated red bands on the
Cancri
55 e
indicate bands of lava that might flow on the planet.
A recent density determination for
55
Cancri e
show that this exoplanet is not made primarily of
oxygen, as are the inner planets in
our Solar System, but rather of
carbon.
Therefore, one reason to visit
Cancri 55 e
might be to study its core, because this planet's great internal pressure might be
sufficient to make the carbon found there into
one huge diamond.
