An exoplanet that's heavier than the Earth has been discovered. The mega-earth discovery was made by astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, reports Huffington Post.

Officially named Kepler-10c, the planet was found way back in 2011 via NASA's Kepler space telescope but Huffington Post notes that it is only now when researchers were finally able to distinguish its chemical composition and identified its mass.

The Kepler-10c was dubbed the "mega-earth" and later on, "Godzilla of Earths" by Prof Dimitar Sasselov, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, reports BBC. "The proper way to call it is something bigger than a 'super-Earth,' so how about 'mega-Earth,'" he told reporters.

Indeed, the mega earth is gigantic - "about 18,000 miles (29,000 km) across, compared with about 8,000 (13,000 km) for our planet, and weighs about 17 times as much as Earth does," notes Time.

"It's 17 - in fact, it's more than 17 - Earth masses, and that brings the density to 7.5 grams per cubic centimeter, which is a lot more than what we know of rock here on Earth (5.5g/cm3)," BBC quotes Prof Sasselov.

Its outstanding mass is reportedly due to "highly compressed" minerals, according to Sasselov. "So, what you see in the density is mostly due to compression rather than different composition. The composition comes out as being a combination of rocks and some volatiles, probably 5-15% at most of water," he said.

Time points out that Kepler-10c's mass is not the only thing that is unlike the Earth. The exoplanet also reportedly cannot sustain life. The report explains, "For one thing, with an orbit of just 45 days, it's too close to its star for water to remain liquid on its surface. It's also not quite the same as Earth in composition: about one percent of our planet's mass is made up of volatile substances like oxygen and water. Kepler 10c has more like 10 percent."