Huge Planet Defies Explanation

Huge Planet Defies Explanation

www.space.com

Astronomers have sighted a very dense planet-sized object that orbits its parent star in just four days and six hours.

The object, COROT-exo-3b, fits into the category of a failed star known as a brown dwarf, but the team that made the discovery has not ruled out the possibility that it is a planet. Brown dwarfs are failed stars. They burn lithium but are not massive enough to generate the thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen and helium that powers real stars. Planets do none of that.

"It has puzzled us; we're not sure where to draw the boundary between planets and brown dwarfs," said Hans Deeg, an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) in the Canary Islands, Spain.

The object has a mass 20 times greater than that of Jupiter, but is roughly the same size. It falls outside the range of planets and stars discovered to date, with the largest planets having 12-Jupiter-mass and the smallest stars 70-Jupiter-mass.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow, very interesting celestial development. Are we entering a new renaissance in space exploration?

Is this a planet? Will we have to come up with a brand new classification for this object?

With Pluto's demotion and Mars's new found blue status, it almost feels like our entire pool of knowledge about the Universe is in flux.

We know not what inhabits the heavens, but I for one am glad that we are still willing to look.

www.space.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

it's not passing through the solar system here on Oct 7th is it

Just checking

Interesting.

And wow that's fast, how fast does that planet travel!? Imagine 4 days in a year, you oversleep and when you wakeup it's already christmas



[edit on 6-10-2008 by _Phoenix_]

reply to post by mopusvindictus


Sharks are scary. Killer planets are scary. October 7th is scary. plucky finds all of this scary. I fault you. Thanks.

[edit on 6-10-2008 by pluckynoonez]

reply to post by pluckynoonez


I had nothing to do with the sharks gathering outside your house!!

You forgot to mention spiders and lady bugs



Cool thread OP What do other astronomers think about this? NASA?

[edit on 6-10-2008 by Lucid Lunacy]

Originally posted by round_eyed_dog


Wow, very interesting celestial development. Are we entering a new renaissance in space exploration?

Is this a planet? Will we have to come up with a brand new classification for this object?

With Pluto's demotion and Mars's new found blue status, it almost feels like our entire pool of knowledge about the Universe is in flux.


www.space.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

let me introduce you to something my friend...

it's called reality.

nasa and other astrological institutes do not discover something then run to the press with this data.

they no doubt gather it all .. analyze the living hell out of it then DIVULGE IT ALONG A SPECIFIC SET RELEASE SCHEDULE.

they dont just merrily hop and skip through the hallways of the press tossing reports here and there saying "look what we JUST found"!!.

they know the public's scrutiny.(or at least a minority of the public which is enough to cause a stir)

they learned their lesson with the 80's newsweek article on planet X and other similar controversial articles about the anomaly causing the far outer planets aberrations.


if anything... this information you're presenting to us was discovered at least 5-10 years ago.. and after thorough mulling over, as to the impact of it (and other data) may have in the long run..

it's presented at a specific time .. in order to garner specific conceptual repoir amongst the thinking public.

to climatize you to an idea that is to be discussed in the global arena for the next 4 years.




i still think it's hilarious how many of you think that by reading science/astronomy news.. you think it's "breaking" .. ...laaawlsies..
it happened 5+ yrs ago.. you're just being told of it now.

you have no idea how many stages of clearance it has to pass in order to break the surface into public waters, and how long that takes.. or how many people that employs...


silly, silly public.

yaaawn..

anyway.. so yeah.. let's talk about brown dwarfs and the fact that they're very similar to planets that revolve around stars...

it's ok to talk about it now.. you won't get pssed on by pseudoskeptics... NASA said it's true.. now we can talk about it's actual reality..

you have the High Information Priests of NASA's holy permission to discuss the topic of brown dwarf planets as a complete reality now.

so predictable.

-



[edit on 6-10-2008 by prevenge]

reply to post by prevenge


Hey Richard.. I mean Dick.. Hows it going...

So they are talking about s super sonic planet, its not like you can talk about this everyday or something...

Anyway cool find..

[edit on 6-10-2008 by whitewave]

I find it interesting that Astronomy on general has difficulties categorizing these things.

First the debate about Pluto, and now this, a semi planet-star.

I'm just glad this hasn't elicited any references to a certain legendary "planet" which is supposed to be just a scary...

Plucky;

You are just too zen sometimes ...

Originally posted by prevenge
it's presented at a specific time .. in order to garner specific conceptual repoir amongst the thinking public.

to climatize you to an idea that is to be discussed in the global arena for the next 4 years.

Let me introduce you to something friend, it's called grammar.

It's quite easy to point out secrets that you seem to think that you are privy to without any sort of citation or source to back it up.

The moon is made of scones and NASA is run by an elderly hedgehog called Gerrold.

See, I can do it as well!

reply to post by _Phoenix_

its already like that here in n.ireland ..the shops are full of Xmas stuff in august.....

reply to post by prevenge


Have you gone off your meds Prevenge? What are you on about?

Anyway nice find, I don't think I've heard of anything that behaved that way before. Reminds me of Futurama!


Edit: R.e.d I think you may have given me my new signature.

[edit on 6-10-2008 by teeveesfrank]

Originally posted by round_eyed_dog

Originally posted by prevenge
it's presented at a specific time .. in order to garner specific conceptual repoir amongst the thinking public.

to climatize you to an idea that is to be discussed in the global arena for the next 4 years.

Let me introduce you to something friend, it's called grammar.

It's quite easy to point out secrets that you seem to think that you are privy to without any sort of citation or source to back it up.

The moon is made of scones and NASA is run by an elderly hedgehog called Gerrold.

See, I can do it as well!

HEY

My keyboard does this weird thing where it cuts out then cuts back in .. the word was meant to be repertoire, j00 smartath!

And this is because of the Crumb-Gnomes that feast on my snack-droppings deep within my board of keys I pound out knowledge to the masses through, short circuiting the keys.

And "climatize" was meant to be "acclimate". That's the Neuron Gremlins fault, rearranging minor alpha-numeric subtleties to make me look bad.
(damn you Neuron Gremlins... damn you)

ya see?
myeaah see?



here comes Nibiru.. it's OKAY to talk about it now.
NASA has given you permission now.

it's OOOKAY to talk about brown dwarfs acting like planets, orbiting stars.

No matter what these god forsaken Keyboard Crumb Gnomes and Neuron Gremlins try on us!

-

[edit on 6-10-2008 by prevenge]

reply to post by prevenge


Irregardless of when it was discovered, the NEWS of it is NOW...... and I think it's wonderful and exciting. Perhaps it has magnetic or gravitational properties that we can only guess at.

You didn't really mean to come off as arrogant, all-knowing and disdainful of people who take delight in previously unknown discoveries in astronomy did you? I'm pretty certain you didn't.

Maybe we can all just revel in the ramifications of this discovery, even debate the findings and properties, yes?

I have no real problem with what you said -- it might be true, however I think if you have such knowledge and insight of the inner workings of astronomical/NASA observations and discovery, that in itself might be a treasture to those of us that are just filled with................ wonder.

Cheers mate; no insult intended, just a prod in the right direction