A French team of astronomers have recently announced the discovery of a new planet. Spotted by their exo-planet hunter, the Corot Satellite, which was launched back in 2006, the new planet has been dubbed Corot Exo 7b. There have been more than 300 so-called exo-planets discovered in our solar system since 1995 but 7b sticks out because the majority of them are gas giants and it appears to be just 1.75 times the width of Earth and is believed to have a similar mass.
Speculators have suggested it may be made of rock or water although it may also be composed of liquid lava. Best not to start booking holidays there just yet since the planet is extremely close to its parent star which would put the temperature on the surface at between 1000 and 1500 degrees Celsius. It also orbits the star once every 20 hours and it is 457 light years away from us. Some experts have suggested that it may have begun life as an ice planet and become a water world as it approached the star and began to heat up.
The Corot satellite managed to detect the planet by looking for dimming light as it crossed in front of the star, so they basically saw a small silhouette. It is not the smallest planet found but it is the smallest planet found which appears to be vaguely similar to our planet. The research continues and scientists are hoping that the launch of the Kepler space craft later this year might help them learn more.