NASA trumpets rocky exoplanet find

NASA has announced it's nailed the first "bone-fide" [sic] rocky exoplanet, which at 1.4 times the diameter of Earth is the smallest such body spotted to date outside our solar system. As its name suggests, Kepler-10b was identified orbiting star Kepler-10 - at a distance of 560 light years from Earth - by the agency's …

[TeeCee]

Rocky?

I did briefly wonder how anyone could describe something with a density "similar to that of an iron dumbbell" could be described as "unequivocably rocky".

Then I remembered that the Yanks don't do irony......

[Grease Monkey]

Eh?

Why couldn't something with the density of solid iron iron not be rocky?

[Baskitcaise]

rocky?

I think TeeCee may have been a bit "rockonic" there.

No?

Please your self.

[Jan 0]

Re: Eh?

Well, with the right impurities and given the uncertainty of that 1,300 C - the iron might just be molten!

Conundrum: Is molten rock still rocky?

Mine's the one with the tungsten sample spoon in the pocket.

[Anonymous Coward]

Molten

Even with impurities and allowing a little for inaccuracy I don't think you could account for about 250 centigrade of error.

[No, I will not fix your computer]

Re: Molten

Actually a eutectic alloy of iron and antimony will be molten at 1300C - no error required (although that's a hell of a lot of antinmony), metals can behave strangely depending on the mix, take NaK as an example (Sodium and Potassium alloy) which is liquid at room temp.

[Old Man - Grey Fleece]

Dumbbell

How different is the density of dumbbell iron from ordinary iron? or is the dumb in the wrong place.

[Code Monkey]

"bone-fide"

Oh good Lord!

Still, well done on finding the planet, NASA

[Anonymous Coward]

"bone-fide"

Shurely "bone, fido".

Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

[Beachrider]

Abusing the American Language is FUN...

bona fide, bono-fide, it is only a borrowed term anyway.

I guess that American-folksy terms just don't sound sweet to sophisticated European ears.

We will sleep well, anyway.

[Intractable Potsherd]

Another example of that law ...

... that says that you will always make a spelling error when you have pointed one out - it should be "minuscule", not "miniscule"!

(Even though I have assiduously checked this, I just know there will be an error somewhere!)

[Lester Haines]

Re: Another example of that law ...

Oh yeah?

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/miniscule

[Anonymous Coward]

Cheap at half the price

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/miniscule

Hmm, you get what you pay for.

[Anonymous Coward]

NASA finds Planet Hell?!?

That would be a great name, being so hot and so much iron.