Spitzer Detects a Steaming Super-Earth Eclipsing Its Star

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has gathered surprising new details about a supersized and superheated version of Earth called 55 Cancri e. According to Spitzer data, the exoplanet is less dense than previously thought, a finding which profoundly changes the portrait of this exotic world. Instead of a dense rock scorched dry by its sun, 55 Cancri e likely has water vapor and other gases steaming from its molten surface. Demory works on exoplanetary research with Prof. Sara Seager. This work was done in collaboration with researcher Diana Valencia, Sara Seager and graduate student Bjorn Benneke and has just been accepted for publication in the journal "Astronomy and Astrophysics". Read more.