Note: this topic is from . Thanks Red Badger.
|
Posted on 08/06/2018 2:53:34 PM PDT by Red Badger
A rogue, planet-size object 20 light-years away from Earth has stunned astronomers with its incredibly powerful magnetic field.
The scientists found that the object's magnetic field is more than 200 times stronger than Jupiter's, which, in turn, is between 16 and 54 times stronger than Earth's, according to NASA. How the object, which scientists call SIMP J01365663+0933473, can maintain a magnetic field so strong, as well as generate spectacular auroras, is still unclear.
"This particular object is exciting because studying its magnetic dynamo mechanisms can give us new insights on how the same type of mechanisms can operate in extrasolar planets — planets beyond our solar system," lead study author Melodie Kao, an astrophysicist at Arizona State University, said in a statement from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory published Aug. 2. [The Strangest Alien Planets We Know in Pictures]
And it's not just the magnetic mechanism that's leaving scientists with questions right now — there are plenty of other mysteries about the object, which scientists first discovered in 2016.
The object is what scientists call a brown dwarf. Nicknamed "failed stars," brown dwarfs are larger than planets, but not quite large enough to fuse hydrogen, the way stars do. The boundary line is still debated, but scientists tend to draw it at about 13 times the mass of Jupiter.
Originally, scientists thought SIMP J01365663+0933473 was a gigantic, old brown dwarf. But further study showed that it is instead relatively young, at 200 million years old, and is only 12.7 times the mass of Jupiter. That research also showed that the planet is on its own, not orbiting a star.
"This object is right at the boundary between a planet and a brown dwarf, or 'failed star,' and is giving us some surprises that can potentially help us understand magnetic processes on both stars and planets," Kao said in the statement. "We think these mechanisms can work not only in brown dwarfs, but also in both gas giant and terrestrial planets."
The team is particularly excited by the new research because it relies in part on radio observations of the object's auroras — which means that radio telescopes may be able to identify new planets by their auroras.
The new research was described in an article published July 31 in the Astrophysical Journal.
Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
This depiction indicates a gas giant. I guess the article didn’t state whether it was or wasn’t.
The exciting thing about locating planets with magnetic fields is that you can potentially live there and not get fried by radiation. The problem with this planet in particular is that you would weigh an awful lot and your widdle wegs would go SNAP!
That was before quasars had been discovered, before black holes, before magnatars, before accretion disks, or dark energy, or dark matter, or neutrino oscillation, or x-ray stars, or event horizons, or star-quakes deep in the interiors of neutron stars... before any of these things were known, or (in many cases) even dreamed of.
What would Clarke have imagined today, were he alive and in his prime?
Science has advanced at such an astounding rate in the last fifty years. Fifty years before Clarke wrote this book, Pluto had not been discovered, and wouldn't be for another 27 years. Heavier-than-air flying machines had just been created. Radio was in its very infancy, and the idea of sending images wirelessly would have been seen as preposterous.
DNA hadn't been discovered; none of its discoverers — Watson, Crick, or Rosalind Franklin — had even been born yet. Neither quantum mechanics or relativity had been heard of, although both were gestating inside the brain of Albert Einstein.
It made such a deep impression on me, at age 13.
We had a wonderful opportunity, when I was in eighth grade. The school district allowed a local man who owned a string of bookstores to teach a small group of children once a week. There were only eight kids in the class, out of about six hundred in the school; you had to write a short story to be admitted.
The guy loved science fiction, and every week would give each of us a brand-new book! I loved them so much; they were so new, they smelled like the printing presses at the publisher. We were the first to touch them; they were absolutely perfect, clean and unopened.
It was a wonderful time, and the school district I was in had very imaginative and creative administrators.
Note: this topic is from . Thanks Red Badger.
|
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.
