"The Smallest Known Planet: Unveiling the Tiniest Celestial Body"

1 min read
Source: Space.com
"The Smallest Known Planet: Unveiling the Tiniest Celestial Body"
Photo: Space.com
TL;DR Summary

The smallest known planet is Kepler 37-b, discovered in 2013 by scientists using data from the Kepler space telescope. It is smaller than Mercury and about the same size as Earth's moon, orbiting the star Kepler-37. While it shares some similarities with Mercury, its status as a planet is debated due to differences in the definition of a planet for exoplanets. Scientists are now looking to the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, scheduled for launch by May 2027, to find even smaller exoplanets using a technique called microlensing.

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