An artist's rendering of the dust cloud trailing a planet being melted by its sun. (MIT / May 21, 2012)
Posted on 06/03/2012 1:51:51 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Researchers at MIT, NASA and elsewhere have detected a possible planet, some 1,500 light years away, that appears to be evaporating under the blistering heat of its parent star. The scientists infer that a long tail of debris -- much like the tail of a comet -- is following the planet, and that this tail may tell the story of the planet's disintegration. According to the team's calculations, the tiny exoplanet, not much larger than Mercury, will completely disintegrate within 100 million years.
The team found that the dusty planet circles its parent star every 15 hours -- one of the shortest planet orbits ever observed. Such a short orbit must be very tight and implies that the planet must be heated by its orange-hot parent star to a temperature of about 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit. Researchers hypothesize that rocky material at the surface of the planet melts and evaporates at such high temperatures, forming a wind that carries both gas and dust into space. Dense clouds of the dust trail the planet as it speeds around its star.
(Excerpt) Read more at scienceblog.com ...
An artist's rendering of the dust cloud trailing a planet being melted by its sun. (MIT / May 21, 2012)
http://news.discovery.com/space/dust-to-dust-death-of-an-exoplanet-120526.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-exoplanet-disintegrating-20120521,0,3772221.story
The scientists infer that a long tail of debris -- much like the tail of a comet -- is following the planet, and that this tail may tell the story of the planet's disintegration... circles its parent star every 15 hours... orbit must be very tight and implies that the planet must be heated by its orange-hot parent star to a temperature of about 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit.
|
 |
||
| · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe · | ||
| Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar · | ||
We hardly knew ya.
Now THAT’S global warming!
|
|
Pac Man
On the up side... won't have to mow the grass.
/johnny
Perfect metaphor for the Obama Economy.
That’d be good to have at next weekend’s b-b-q for flippin’ some burgers on. Ready, ready, ready, ready, ready, ready...
:’D
Hehe. Assuming no inclement molten-corundum showers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
