Exoplanets - Wired's Top Five Most Extreme

"Top 5 Most Extreme Exoplanets"
Wired (January 21, 2009)

"Searching for planets beyond our solar system is a bit like playing Goldilocks — we keep looking for that one that will be just right to host life. While astronomers haven't found a perfect fit yet, they have found plenty that are too big, too hot, too cold, too dense, too close to their star, or too distant...."

Wired's picks are: CoKu Tau/4; PSR B1620-26 b; SWEEPS-10; OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb; and HD 149026b.

None of them are anywhere near Star Trek's "class M planet," but at least OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb seems to be made mostly of rock. The bad news is that it's colder than Minnesota in January.

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Related posts, at

• "A Serious Search for Other Worlds, Life, and - Maybe - Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence"