‘Godzilla of Earths’: Alien planet 17 times heavier than our world discovered

By Miriam Kramer

BOSTON –  Scientists have just discovered the “Godzilla of Earths” — a new type of huge and rocky alien world about 560 light-years from Earth.

Dubbed a “mega-Earth,” the exoplanet Kepler-10c weighs 17 times as much as Earth and it circles a sunlike star in the constellation Draco. The mega-Earth is rocky and also bigger than “super-Earths,” which are a class of planets that are slightly bigger than Earth.

Theorists weren’t actually sure that a world like the newfound exoplanet could exist. Scientists thought that planets of Kepler-10c’s size would be gaseous, collecting hydrogen as they grew and turning into Jupiter-like worlds. However, researchers have now found that the newly discovered planet is rocky, Christine Pulliam, a spokeswoman with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, wrote in a statement announcing the find. [The Strangest Alien Planets Ever Found (Gallery)]

READ MORE: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/06/02/godzilla-earths-alien-planet-17-times-heavier-than-our-world-discovered/