Astronomers find 'home from home' - 90 light years away!

spaceref.com ^ | 3 Jul 03 | staff

[RightWhale]

Astronomers find 'home from home' - 90 light years away!

Astronomers looking for planetary systems that resemble our own solar system have found the most similar formation so far. British astronomers, working with Australian and American colleagues, have discovered a planet like Jupiter in orbit round a nearby star that is very like our own Sun. Among the hundred found so far, this system is the one most similar to our Solar System. The planet's orbit is like that of Jupiter in our own Solar System, especially as it is nearly circular and there are no bigger planets closer in to its star.

"This planet is going round in a nearly circular orbit three-fifths the size of our own Jupiter. This is the closest we have yet got to a real Solar System-like planet, and advances our search for systems that are even more like our own," said UK team leader Hugh Jones of Liverpool John Moores University.

The planet was discovered using the 3.9-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope [AAT] in New South Wales, Australia. The discovery, which is part of a large search for solar systems that resemble our own, will be announced today (Thursday, July 3rd 2003) by Hugh Jones (Liverpool John Moores University) at a conference on "Extrasolar Planets: Today and Tomorrow" in Paris, France.

"It is the exquisite precision of our measurements that lets us search for these Jupiters - they are harder to find than the more exotic planets found so far. Perhaps most stars will be shown to have planets like our own Solar System", said Dr Alan Penny, from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

The new planet, which has a mass about twice that of Jupiter, circles its star (HD70642) about every six years. HD70642 can be found in the constellation Puppis and is about 90 light years away from Earth. The planet is 3.3 times further from its star as the Earth is from the Sun (about halfway between Mars and Jupiter if it were in our own system).

The long-term goal of this programme is the detection of true analogues to the Solar System: planetary systems with giant planets in long circular orbits and small rocky planets on shorter circular orbits. This discovery of a -Jupiter- like gas giant planet around a nearby star is a step toward this goal. The discovery of other such planets and planetary satellites within the next decade will help astronomers assess the Solar System's place in the galaxy and whether planetary systems like our own are common or rare.

Prior to the discovery of extrasolar planets, planetary systems were generally predicted to be similar to the Solar System - giant planets orbiting beyond 4 Earth-Sun distances in circular orbits, and terrestrial mass planets in inner orbits. The danger of using theoretical ideas to extrapolate from just one example - our own Solar System - has been shown by the extrasolar planetary systems now known to exist which have very different properties. Planetary systems are much more diverse than ever imagined.

However these new planets have only been found around one-tenth of stars where they were looked for. It is possible that the harder-to-find very Solar System-like planets do exist around most stars.

The vast majority of the presently known extrasolar planets lie in elliptical orbits, which would preclude the existence of habitable terrestrial planets. Previously, the only gas giant found to orbit beyond 3 Earth-Sun distances in a near circular orbit was the outer planet of the 47 Ursa Majoris system - a system which also includes an inner gas giant at 2 Earth-Sun distances (unlike the Solar System). This discovery of a 3.3 Earth-Sun distance planet in a near circular orbit around a Sun-like star bears the closest likeness to our Solar System found to date and demonstrates our searches are precise enough to find Jupiter- like planets in Jupiter-like orbit.

To find evidence of planets, the astronomers use a high- precision technique developed by Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institute of Washington and Geoff Marcy of the University of California at Berkeley to measure how much a star "wobbles" in space as it is affected by a planet's gravity. As an unseen planet orbits a distant star, the gravitational pull causes the star to move back and forth in space. That wobble can be detected by the 'Doppler shifting' it causes in the star's light. This discovery demonstrates that the long term precision of the team's technique is 3 metres per second (7mph) making the Anglo-Australian Planet Search at least as precise as any of the many planet search projects underway.

[MHGinTN]

What is current thinking on the 'inflationary period'?... And at the bang, time and space, as we conceive of them, came into being. Certainly the speed of light is to our 'reception' of electromagnetic energy a constant, but might the spatio-temporal 'stretch' of the universe have made electromagnetic waves traverse spacetime at a different rate during the inflationary period? ... And one last inane question: wouldn't there have been a period in the 'birth' of the spatio-temporal universe when electromagentic energy didn't manifest and the entire universe was in effect 'darkness'?

[MHGinTN]

That's unless someone beats the crap out of US.

[conservababeJen]

Ha! You made a funny

[Aric2000]

Was I offensive?

Did I hurt your feelings?

I apologize if I hurt your feelings, I was stating my opinion, it was not meant to hurt you.

I can indeed be an adult, and I do indeed know who started this going, but I see that ALS couldn't leave well enough alone either.

I easily accept the fact that we get into it as well, but once ALS starts in, it's kind of hard to remain civil, since he does not have to follow such rules.

It's kind of like saying, OK, ALS can attack you personally ALL he wants, but don't you dare defend yourself, because then it will be your fault.

If that's the rule then please let us all know in advance.

That's fine, Love is blind, what more could I expect? I had to at least give it a shot.

Again, I apologize if I hurt your feelings.

[DAnconia55]

eye/ego of the beholder

Nope. Sorry.
Has nothing to do with 'belief' at all.

Reality IS.
You will be proven wrong eventually.
By one measure you already have, since microscopic life outside of Earth was found.

Fundies are why the US will keep alien contact a secret - if there is/was/will be such contact. You'll fall to pieces.

The idea that the entire universe was created just for little ol' us, is highly arrogant. (Not to mention contradicted in the Bible...)
With billions of stars in each galaxy, and billions of galaxies...?

There's a thread about a preacher that got hit by lightning that's probably more suitable for you.

I'm sorry that your belief requires you to place all your eggs in one basket, so to speak. But leave us rational folk out of it, please.

[Aric2000]

Yeah, whenever I work on something, from a computer to a playhouse for my kids, if there is not somehow some blood sacrifice, it just doesn't feel complete somehow...lol

[battousai]

"I don't know how long a light year is, but the Millenium Falcon made the kessle run in under 5 parsecs. ;^) "

LOL I am one of the biggest Star Wars geeks arround, but that line always bugged me, since a parsec is a measure of distance and not time :P It just grates on my nerves whenever I watch ANH again (for the 1xx th time).

[RadioAstronomer]

I build a lot of computers and never consider one finished without a bit of my blood. Trouble is, the newer aluminum cases are so well made they don't have any sharp edges in tight places.

Thank God! :-) I use Lian-Li cases myself. :-)

[conservababeJen]

Seems you haven't READ this thread. ALS started NOTHING. MOF...ALS did exactly what YOU just justified, he DEFENDED himself.

Were you offensive? hahahahahahahahaha Is that a trick question? Let's drop the patronizing tone is old and annoying. Find some sincerity or go back to being an outright prick so I can tell you what i really think of that post. The other option is "virtual ignore". You pick

[RadioAstronomer]

Can't have someone playing dice with all those constants...chaos would result.... OH No! Now I've done it... :))

ROFL!!!!!!

[conservababeJen]

see #38

[Aric2000]

Here Jen go here and read his responses, and tell me if they are reasonable?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/939163/posts?q=1&&page=301

I have been switching between threads, and my frustration level has obviously been rubbing off on this one, for that I apologize.

GO to that thread, read ALS's posts, and then read the responses and questions that are asked of him, and then again, read his responses.

If this is the behavior of a mature adult that wishes to add to the discussion, in your view, then I believe that you are the one with the problem.

You read that, and private message me what you think of his behavior, I am done in this thread discussing this subject.

[Aric2000]

Those are NICE cases, I am picking one up for my new system, just ordered the motherboard, next week I will pick up the case.

I am hoping that it will be strong enough to do some of the stuff I want to do, because this computer is turning into a slug before my eyes.

Well, it is 3 years old, so what should I expect.

I build everyone else just NICE computers, but I never seem to get around to my own. LOL

Time to get physicist on the ball and get him to figuring out how to break that pesky light barrier!!

[js1138]

I use Lian-Li cases myself

I built one of these for each of my children. My current love is the Shuttle XPC. 8"x8"x12", just beautiful.

[RadioAstronomer]

Here is a nice site you may enjoy: :-)

http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_uni/uni_101bbtest2.html

[RadioAstronomer]

Time to get physicist on the ball and get him to figuring out how to break that pesky light barrier!!

Hmmmm..... Could be fun! :-)

[RadioAstronomer]

I built one of these for each of my children. My current love is the Shuttle XPC. 8"x8"x12", just beautiful.

Cool! :-)

[js1138]

Aric has a point. He is not the only one who has crossed swords with ALS tonight. I think the Jerry Lewis thing was the low point, because jennyp is among the most on-point posters on FR, and she did not deserve that kind of response. As far as I could tell, she never got riled and never posted anything except fact-based questions.

I think we are allowed to get a bit warm when straight questions are mocked.

[ALS]

jennyp is a loon when it comes to defending darwood.

me saying "jerry lewis" is hardly something to run home to momma about. Is that the best you clowns can do?


Fact is, I was attacked in #38. I had not been in here. It was an unsolicited attack.

Another fact... Aric is the one that assailed me. I had not said a word to the pup.

get your facts straight for once

I thought you said you guys had all discussed this privately? Did you leave out the pup again?

[edsheppa]

And at the bang, time and space, as we conceive of them, came into being.

I don't know if you've read Gott's book Time Travel in Einstein's Universe. In it he speculates that "in the beginning" there "was" a time warp (a region of space-time with closed time-like loops) and the universe sort of spews out of it. I found his book an interesting read.