• metaStatic@kbin.earth
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      116
      ·
      2 months ago

      6.9 times larger than earth

      Fucking exo-planet

      is it even special though

      What a time to be alive

      • drislands@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        41
        ·
        2 months ago

        Well…the headline only says the planet is 6.9 times as big as Earth. Jupiter is at least that large, last time I checked, so without more context I also don’t know what is special about it.

        • Starbuck@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          23
          ·
          2 months ago

          I think that it’s more impressive to identify something that’s only 6.9x the size of earth, given that the smaller it is the harder it would be to detect.

      • DashboTreeFrog@discuss.online
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        33
        ·
        2 months ago

        For real. Confirming the existence of any exo planet is a huge technological feat and yet now it’s happening non stop. The first ever confirmed exo planet was 1995 and now we’ve got a catalog of almost 6,000 confirmed. Wild times!

    • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      2 months ago

      I mean spotting it in only 3 days feels like a pretty big feat in of itself, unless this kid had access to a database on one particular star’s brightening and dimming or it’s potential weeble wobbling about, he did in 3 days what usually takes weeks at a minimum if it’s a planet the size of jupiter or bigger.