* Astronomy

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RE: Kepler 37b

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Title: A sub-Mercury-sized exoplanet
Authors: Thomas Barclay, Jason F. Rowe, Jack J. Lissauer, Daniel Huber, Francois Fressin, Steve B. Howell, Stephen T. Bryson, William J. Chaplin, Jean-Michel Désert, Eric D. Lopez, Geoffrey W. Marcy, Fergal Mullally, Darin Ragozzine, Guillermo Torres, Elisabeth R. Adams, Eric Agol, David Barrado, Sarbani Basu, Timothy R. Bedding, Lars A. Buchhave, David Charbonneau, Jessie L. Christiansen, Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard, David Ciardi, William D. Cochran, Andrea K. Dupree, Yvonne Elsworth, Mark Everett, Debra A. Fischer, Eric B. Ford, Jonathan J. Fortney, John C. Geary, Michael R. Haas, Rasmus Handberg, Saskia Hekker, Christopher E. Henze, Elliott Horch, Andrew W. Howard, Roger C. Hunter, Howard Isaacson, Jon M. Jenkins, Christoffer Karoff, Steven D. Kawaler, Hans Kjeldsen, Todd C. Klaus, David W. Latham, et al. (12 additional authors not shown)

Since the discovery of the first exoplanet we have known that other planetary systems can look quite unlike our own. However, until recently we have only been able to probe the upper range of the planet size distribution. The high precision of the Kepler space telescope has allowed us to detect planets that are the size of Earth and somewhat smaller, but no previous planets have been found that are smaller than those we see in our own Solar System. Here we report the discovery of a planet significantly smaller than Mercury. This tiny planet is the innermost of three planets that orbit the Sun-like host star, which we have designated Kepler-37. Owing to its extremely small size, similar to that of Earth's Moon, and highly irradiated surface, Kepler-37b is probably a rocky planet with no atmosphere or water, similar to Mercury.

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NASA's Kepler Mission Discovers Tiny Planet System

NASA's Kepler mission scientists have discovered a new planetary system that is home to the smallest planet yet found around a star similar to our sun.
The planets are located in a system called Kepler-37, about 210 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra. The smallest planet, Kepler-37b, is slightly larger than our moon, measuring about one-third the size of Earth. It is smaller than Mercury, which made its detection a challenge.
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Exoplanet Kepler 37b is tiniest yet - smaller than Mercury

Astronomers have smashed the record for the smallest planet beyond our Solar System - finding one only slightly larger than our Moon.
To spot the tiny, probably rocky planet, they first needed to precisely measure the size of its host star.
They did so using "astroseismology" - effectively, turning tiny variations in the star's light into sounds.
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