Posted on 07/14/2005 1:07:16 PM PDT by presidio9
Astronomers have detected a planet outside our solar system with not one, but three suns, a finding that challenges astronomers' theories of planetary formation.
The planet, a gas giant slightly larger than Jupiter, orbits the main star of a triple-star system known as HD 188753 in the constellation Cygnus.
The stellar trio and its planet are about 149 light-years from Earth and about as close to each other as our sun is to Saturn, U.S. scientists reported on Thursday in the current edition of the journal Nature.
A light-year is about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km), the distance light travels in a year.
If you stood on the planet's surface, you would see three suns in sky, although its orbit centers around the main yellow star among the trio. The larger of the other two suns would be orange and the smaller would be red, astronomers at California Institute of Technology said in a statement.
The new finding could upset
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
You have no life, but you are correct. Tatoo is a binary star and Tatooine is an Earth-like planet.
Come on. Are you saying you haven't seen the original Star Wars more than once? I'm not quoting obscure Science Fiction movies, plots, or characters here...This is almost common knowledge.
Tantoo Cardinal - wasn't she in Dances With Wolves?
"Good one TROLL!" ;)
"My Three Suns"
Yo. Your basic life imitates art stuff.
We need to remember that the stars and planet mentioned in the article are in our galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy.
As opposed to "a galaxy far, far away"
However, to answer your question, regardless of how far away a planet is, the current date on that planet would be the same as the date on earth. However, the light reaching our planet from that planet will have travelled about as long as the distance in light years.
So, we are seeing light that left this planet's solar system about 149 years ago - in 1856.
PS. And if the planet were 149 million light years away, from here we would be seeing it as it was 149 million years ago. The date on the planet itself - assuming it was still there - would be equivalent to the date on earth.
And here I thought that was Washington, D.C!
Is that what the theories say? If that is that case, where does the gas and dust come from? And what is the composition of that dust?
I think that planets begin as the cores of dead stars. A star is powered by fusion, which is fueled by hydrogen. A condensing cloud of hydrogen would presumably gain enough mass that the graviational pressure at the center would cause 2 or more hydrogen atoms to fuse together. The fusion of hydrogen releases more energy than it takes to make it fuse. Thus, the energy released causes more hydrogen atoms to fuse, until the hydrogen is used up.
Then, the star switches over to helium power, which it uses until it runs out of that. Then it switches to the next element, working it's way up the periodic table until it gets to iron, after which it can no longer gain more energy from the fusion than it takes to fuse the element. The star then collapses, as the fusion comes to a stop.
Interestingly, a star may take several billion years to use up all of its hydrogen, and a somewhat shorter period to use up all its helium, and progeressively shorter periods for each element. When it gets to iron, it uses it all up in a few seconds. All of the helium, lithium, carbon, nitrogen, and all the other elements lighter than iron are formed in stars. I believe that, when a star fuses all its iron and then collapses, that all of the other elements are created in that collapse. What we would see as a supernova, would be when the star runs out of iron and collapses under its own weight. I'm sure that most of the mass of a star gets blown off in the supernova explosion, but there has to be something left. We're on it. Of course, in journalism school, it's easier for them to teach that planets are formed from clouds of gas and dust.
We'll be in the neighborhood - eventually....
Actually, I thought it was just a home star with a very close moon. Like the Autumn Moon. When it just hangs fat and low on the horizon.
This is sort of embarrassing...but when I saw Mr. Roark, I thought, "hey...that's a kick ass suit!". Black pocket square is an especially nice touch.
I wonder if I could get away with that look?
I thought Tatooine had two suns, not three. Also Tatoonie was not a gas giant.
He had to get somebody to respond to the article.
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