Scientists Say Red Speck Is Indeed Huge New Planet

NY Times ^ | April 30, 2005 | DENNIS OVERBYE

[neverdem]

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

[stainlessbanner]

23 billion miles

Put that in MapQuest! That's far, far away

[Charles Henrickson]

Hereis a close-up of just the planet itself. I'll point to it:

> .

[NormsRevenge]

[NormsRevenge]

Caption to image in #5

Caption: ESO PR Photo 14a/05 The first planet outside of our solar system to be imaged orbits a brown dwarf (centre-right) at a distance that is nearly twice as far as Neptune is from the sun. The photo is based on three near-infrared exposures (in the H, K and L' wavebands) with the NACO adaptive-optics facility at the 8.2-m VLT Yepun telescope at the ESO Paranal Observatory.

[neverdem]

ping

[martin_fierro]

orbits a kind of failed star known as a brown dwarf

[neverdem]

Thanks for the pic. Where did you happen to find it?

[xJones]

You'll know if it's a real planet if there's ReMax 'For Sale' signs all over it.

[neverdem]

LOL!

[Crazieman]

Thats 23 billion miles from the parent star.

The planet is about 1,350 trillion miles away from us.

[NormsRevenge]

http://www.eso.org/ ;)

[Qwinn]

Wait a minute. Wasn't part of the main premise of Arthur C. Clarke's 2010 that Jupiter's mass isn't far shy of what it would take to make it ignite into a star? How the heck can this planet be five times the mass of Jupiter and not start fusing it's lighter elements under it's own extreme gravitational pressure? Or was Clarke taking extreme liberties with science for the sake of his story? I can see him do that in areas where the science would be less well-established, but taking liberties on something like this seems uncharacteristic of him.

Qwinn

[new cruelty]

I'll see your Gary Coleman and raise you one Herve Villechaize

What do you think of that?

[Crazieman]

Liberties. You would have to stack on about 79 more Jupiters to ignite it into a "brown dwarf"

[Qwinn]

I don't mean necessarily into a brown dwarf, I mean any kind of star. Are you saying it would take a mass of 79 jupiters to start fusing hydrogen?

Qwinn

[Crazieman]

As an addendum, when it was written, it was generally thought Jupiter was at the near-limit.

As more science was gathered on Jupiter and theories developed, it was later established that Jupiter was in fact, far too small.

This was confirmed through the discoveries of extrasolar planets starting in 1990 having masses of 20-50 Jupiters.

(Note, these planets were all discovered indirectly through "wobble" and "occultation" observations, never directly)

[Crazieman]

Well, about 80 Jupiters is thought to be the flashpoint.

And even then it would be a very dull star. "Brown dwarf"