NASA astronomers discovered the smallest planet

Astronomers discovered the smallest planet outside our solar system. This is the first that is certainly rocky like Earth. Measurements of extraordinary precision-called Kepler showed that 10b is 1.4 times the diameter of Earth and a mass 4.6 times greater than he. However, because it orbits very close to its star, the exoplanet could not support life. The discovery has been hailed as "one of the deepest in the history of mankind."

Why some planets orbit backwards?

Experts from Northwestern University in Illinois, USA, conduct a study that was published in the scientific journal Nature, and which required to find the reasons for this phenomenon that breaks with the standard theory of planet configuration. According to this theory, a planet must rotate in the same direction as their star, just like in our solar system. "It's very strange, and it is even rarer because the planet is very close to the star," said Frederic Rasio, an astrophysicist at Northwestern University.

Earth in the third dimension

The German satellite TanDEM-X was launch into orbit on a mission to map more accurate to be made available to the surface of the Earth. The satellite will fly radar technology with identical platform called TerraSAR-X launched in 2007. Both measured variations in the height of the globe with an accuracy of better than two meters.

Its digital elevation model will have many uses, from helping military jets fly ultra low height to show where rescue workers was worse the damage caused by an earthquake.