Pluto may have been demoted from its ranking as a planet, but a new one is stepping up to take its place - albeit in another solar system.
CoRoT-7b is the first rocky planet found outside our solar system. It was discovered by and named after the planetary discovery mission CoRoT.
While the planet has a density similar to earth's, the similarities end there. The planet has virtually no atmosphere, and it doesn't rotate as it revolves around a star as Earth does.
Without an atmosphere to release heat, the side facing the star is molten and the side away from the star is frozen.
The planet was discovered through the transit method, which involves monitoring a star's brightness to see when something passes in front of it. It was confirmed as a planet in September.
Jian Ge, a UF astronomy professor, said that for a long time humans thought our solar system was unique, but this planet proves that other solar systems are similar to ours, giving evidence for the possibility that life exists outside our atmosphere.
"[CoRoT-7b is] a key milestone [to] eventually understand or detect habitable rocky planets around other stars," he said. "Of that, there will be life around other stars."
