COROT-Exo-3b

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COROT-Exo-3b is an unknown celestial object detected by the French-led COROT mission.[1]

It appears to be something between a brown dwarf, a sub-stellar object without nuclear fusion at its core but with some stellar characteristics, and a planet. Its radius is too small for it to be a super-planet. If it is a star, it would be among the smallest ever detected. Follow-up observations from the ground have pinned it at 20 Jupiter masses. This makes it twice as dense as the metal Platinum.

Scientists suspect that with the detection of COROT-exo-3b, they might just have discovered the missing link between stars and planets.

[edit] References

  1. ^ ESA Portal - Exoplanet hunt update
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