Researchers have discovered a new kind of “Godzilla” planet due to its massive size that’s 560 light years from Earth. It’s called Kepler-10c and the planet is 17 times more massive than our planet, and has been named a ‘mega-Earth’. This is a notable discovery because astronomers previously didn’t believe such a world could exist because they believed anything so large would grab hydrogen gas as it grew and become a gaseous ‘mini-Neptune’. Continue reading for a video and more information.
According to The Daily Mail, “But to their surprise, Kepler-10c has been able to remain solid despite being more than twice as old as the Earth. The discovery suggests that potentially life-bearing rocky planets may be far more common than first thought, and some could be extremely ancient. The Kepler-10 star system is thought to be 11 billion years old, meaning it formed less than three billion years after the birth to the universe. Earth, by comparison, is only around 4.5 billion years old.”
