Posted on by Paul M. Sutter

A new Class of Exoplanets can Shrink, From Subneptunes Into Superearths

Illustration of the inferred size of the super-Earth CoRoT-7b (center) in comparison with Earth and Neptune. Image Credit: By Aldaron, a.k.a. Aldaron - Own work, incorporating public domain images for reference planets (see below), inspired by Thingg's size comparison, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8854176

Mighty planets can be whittled down, leaving behind only their rocky cores, becoming nothing bigger than superearths. While astronomers had long suspected that this could happen, a new study reveals that it can occur in as little as a billion years.

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Posted on by Fraser Cain

Weekly Space Hangout – Jan 9, 2015: Andy Weir of “The Martian”

Host: Fraser Cain (@fcain)
Special Guest: Andy Weir , author of “The Martian”
Andy was first hired as a programmer for a national laboratory at age fifteen and has been working as a software engineer ever since. He is also a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of subjects like relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight. “The Martian” is his first novel.

Guests:
Morgan Rehnberg (cosmicchatter.org / @cosmic_chatter)
Ramin Skibba (@raminskibba)
Brian Koberlein (@briankoberlein)
Dave Dickinson (@astroguyz / www.astroguyz.com)
Nicole Gugliucci (cosmoquest.org / @noisyastronomer)
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