Astronomers unveil densest rocky planet

AN international team of astronomers has revealed details of a super-exotic exo-planet. The planet, named 55 Cancrie, is 60 per cent larger in diameter than Earth but eight times as massive. Twice as dense as Earthalmost as dense as leadit is the densest solid planet known, according to a team led by astronomers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of British Columbia (UBC), the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC), United States of America (U.S.A.).The research, based on observations from Canadas MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of STars) space telescope, has been submitted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. MOST is a Canadian Space Agency mission.Approximately 40 light years from Earth, 55 Cancri e orbits a starcalled 55 Cancri Aso closely that its year is less than 18 hours long. You could set dates on this world by your wrist watch, not a calendar, says UBC astronomer Jaymie Matthews.The temperature on the planets surface could be as high as 2,700 degrees Celsius. Because of the infernal heat, its unlikely that 55 Cancri e has an atmosphere, says lead author Josh Winn of MIT. So this is not the type of place where exobiologists would look for life. 
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