Posted on 09/01/2019 8:23:25 AM PDT by BenLurkin
HR 5183 b slingshots around more like a comet - a long, elliptical orbit with the star at one end of the oval.
If HR 5183 b were in our Solar System, it would swing in closer than the orbit of Jupiter, and then way out farther than the orbit of Neptune.
HR 5183 b is a massive gas giant that orbits a Sun-like main sequence star called HR 5183 around 103 light-years away.
Because the exoplanet's orbit is so weird - it takes around 74 years to orbit the star, swooping out as far as over 30 astronomical units - the team got really lucky in detecting it. They managed to capture it at periastron, its closest approach. That's less than 5 astronomical units.
The star was under long-term surveillance as part of an exoplanet search using the radial velocity method. This is a very reliable method for finding exoplanets, based on the very slight movement of the star as it is tugged out of place by the gravity of its orbiting bodies.
For close-orbiting planets that take just days to whip around the star, this doesn't require a lot of time. But if you want to find distant exoplanets with orbits on the scale of years, decades or even centuries, you have to put in a lot of time. That's why the star was being monitored.
Then, after 10 years, something weird happened. The star started rapidly accelerating - pulled by the exoplanet's three-Jupiter mass. In 2018, the radial velocity measurements turned over and flattened out.
"This planet spends most of its time loitering in the outer part of its star's planetary system in this highly eccentric orbit, then it starts to accelerate in and does a slingshot around its star,"
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencealert.com ...
“The Most Extreme Orbit We’ve Ever Seen” Yeah, but is it on RECORD? If it’s not on record, it don’t count.
Looks like it almost collides with Jupiter and Uranus. Why wouldn’t its gravity have affected their orbits when it flew so close to them?
Ever try to get a 3 year old to do what you tell him, or a Republican? Then it’s easier to understand this planet.
That's....astronomical!
Different solar system. It can stay there, too.
This is clearly Nibiru.
The alien overlords will be along shortly...
Contact Graham Hancock, George Noory, Art Bell, and Alex Jones.
Is it the size of a regular mammoth or a woolly mammoth?
It’s a comparison overlay to show what the orbit would look like in our solar system. The exoplanet is not in our solar system.
Exoplanet, periastron, elliptical. Sometimes I think scientists just make words up to sound smart. Elliptical. Pbbbbbbt. There’s no such word.
How many parceps are there in an astronomical unit?
Because Jupiter and Neptune are in our solo at system.
It's in dictionary.com, so it must be real.
Well, the periastron is a patch of skin that people have in a very personal part of their anatomies, yes?
In the 50’s astronomers would say “perigeewhiz” but it fell out of favor once the hippies showed up and ruined everything.
Taint never heard of a periastron. What is it?
The weird planet is in another system. It might be showing our solar system as a comparison of what it is doing in the other system. Out there, it might be affecting the orbits of other bodies in its system. Unless it is widely out of the ecliptic of any other planets. Like Pluto is in ours.
Beat me to it.
Republicans are easy. Just pour a lot of money into a K-street outfit to keep reminding him who is really pulling his strings.
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.