Kepler-10b planetary surface, artwork. The discovery of this rocky exoplanet was announced on 10 January 2011. It was found by NASA's Kepler Mission,

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Kepler-10b planetary surface, artwork. The discovery of this rocky exoplanet was announced on 10 January 2011. It was found by NASA's Kepler Mission, a space observatory launched in 2009 and scanning tens of thousands of stars in the Milky Way to discover Earth-like planets. Kepler-10b is the smallest rocky planet found so far outside the solar system. It has a diameter times that of Earth, but orbits close to its parent star, making it more like Mercury. The surface is molten and blasted by solar radiation that prevents any atmosphere forming. The Kepler-10 system is 560 light years away, in the constellation of Draco.

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Size: 3956px × 2226px
Photo credit: © NASA/KEPLER MISSION/DANA BERRY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 10b, 2011, alien, artwork, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, draco, exoplanet, extrasolar, heat, high, hot, illustration, kepler, kepler-10b, mission, molten, nasa, planet, planetary, rock, rocky, science, space, temperatures, universe