Posted on 08/25/2004 3:27:13 PM PDT by swilhelm73
There seems to be a problem with the following statement found in the article:
Most of the more than 120 planets found beyond our solar system are gaseous worlds as big or larger than Jupiter, mostly in tight orbits that would not permit a rocky planet to survive.
By "tight orbits" those quoted or the writer apparently mean orbits of small radii, placing the planets near the parent stars. Only rocky planets survive close to their stars because stellar winds blow away the lighter elements found near the surface of gas giants near their stars. A rocky core, if it existed, would remain. It is conceivable that during the formation of our sun and protoplanets, planets near the sun began as gas giants with rocky cores, but their light, gaseous elements quickly (on the astronomical time scale) were blown away as solar radiation increased, leaving behind the rocky planets we know as Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
One other point: the distance from mu Ara of the newly discovered planet is not given and I'm too lazy to compute it using the data given; however, if the planet has a period of only 10 days or less, it is extremely close to mu. More than likely the rotational periods of the planet on it axis and around mu are the same because it is locked by the overpowering gravity of the star, just as the Moon is locked to Earth and Mercury to the sun so they always present the same face or hemisphere to their gravationally superior hosts. What a hostile environment it would be on the side of this newly discovered planet that always faces mu Ara!
Just like on a beach in Mexico.
Hey we now have a place to send katsup-boy & the rest of his friends!
Upload your mind into a machine, barring accidents, you are effectively immortal after that, so long as you have spares.
Just so long as John Robertson's descendants keeps everything backed up.
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