NEWS HUNT Kieran Hardy 11/07/2013
For years, we thought our Earth was the only blue dot up there. Now another has been found. Its name is HD189773b. HD189773b is an exoplanet, a planet outside our Solar System, and is one of the nearest exoplanets to Earth. Even so, [16]. Here’s why: It is 63 light years away. That means it is 370,440,000,000,000 miles from us. Even if we fly at 3,500 miles an hour, it will take more than 12 million years to get there.
[17]: It is much bigger, it is made of gas and it is burning hot. In heat as great as 1,000°C, life is not possible. What is worse, it rains glass. If 1,000°C does not kill you, glass rain will.
Even so, finding this blue giant [18]. It is the first time that we have been able to see the color of an exoplanet. The color of a planet gives us ideas about what is happening on it. While we have a long way to go before we find a new planet to live on, finding a blue dot is a good start.
exoplanet 系外行星；Solar System 太陽系