Discovery: The Great Pink Planet

I’m well aware of what today is.  Believe me, I debated on whether or not to make a fake April Fools Day blog posting along the lines of “NASA announces the discovery of intelligent life on planet Eps Eri 04-01a,” or “50,000 year old space ship discovered in Antarctica.”  However, there’s stuff out there in space that’s real and strange enough to bring to light without having to result in phoney gags.  For example, a couple of days back I heard about the discovery of a pink planet way out in space.  So here’s the rundown on the lowest-mass planet ever detected around a star like the sun, GJ 504b that just happens to be pink.