Stretched-out solid exoplanets

Astronomers could soon be able to find rocky planets stretched out by the gravity of the stars they orbit, according to a group of researchers in the United States. The team, led by Prabal Saxena of George Mason University, describe how to detect these exotic worlds in a paper in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. An artist's impression of a stretched rocky planet in orbit around a red dwarf star. So close to the star, there is a difference in the strength of the grav...