Suicidal planet seems on death spiral into star

Yahoo News ^ | 08/27/2009 | SETH BORENSTEIN

[VRWCmember]

WASHINGTON – Astronomers have found what appears to be a gigantic suicidal planet.

The odd, fiery planet is so close to its star and so large that it is triggering tremendous plasma tides on the star. Those powerful tides are in turn warping the planet's zippy less-than-a-day orbit around its star.

The result: an ever-closer tango of death, with the planet eventually spiraling into the star.

[VRWCmember]

If they just pass a cap and trade program, then everything should be OK.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

The planet is called “Gore.”

[George from New England]

Your description sounds like it applies to the O administration.

[GonzoGOP]

OK zippy is not a word usually associated with astronomy. However seeing a planet slam into a star would be severely cool, as long as you weren't standing on the planet in question. This has Mythbusters written all over it.

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt

[17th Miss Regt]

However seeing a planet slam into a star would be severely cool

That's an interesting way to put it...

[Dallas59]

We need a tax for this just in case....

[xcamel]

Planet “Climateus” - home of the “Changity” people

[Vaquero]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2325308/posts

same article

[VRWCmember]

It's a slow death. The planet WASP-18b has maybe a million years to live, said planet discoverer Coel Hellier, a professor of astrophysics at the Keele University in England. Hellier's report on the suicidal planet is in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

"It's causing its own destruction by creating these tides," Hellier said.

...

The planet circles a star that is in the constellation Phoenix and is about 325 light-years away from Earth, which means it is in our galactic neighborhood. A light-year is about 5.8 trillion miles.

...

Like most planets outside our solar system, this planet was not seen directly by a telescope. Astronomers found it by seeing dips in light from the star every time the planet came between the star and Earth.

...

The answer will become apparent in less than a decade if the planet seems to be further in a death spiral, he said.

So if the planet has "maybe a million years" left, how will there be enough change in "less than a decade" to make any answers apparent?

[FourPeas]

It's so unusual to find a suicidal planet that University of Maryland astronomer Douglas Hamilton questioned whether there was another explanation. While it is likely that this is a suicidal planet, Hamilton said it is also possible that some basic physics calculations that all astronomers rely on could be dead wrong.

Ah, it all comes down to physics and, potentially, how much we don't know.

[VRWCmember]

Dang. I did a search but on the abbreviated and modified headline on the Yahoo main page. Still, there should have been enough common words for the search to have shown that the article.

[freedomlover]

"Zippy"?

[DannyTN]

"tremendous plasma tides"

Surf's Up!!!

[null and void]

So if the planet has "maybe a million years" left, how will there be enough change in "less than a decade" to make any answers apparent?

At the current rate a decade is ~4,000 orbits.

If the rate is substantially faster in a decade that means the planet is spiraling in faster and faster. If it's ~4,010/decade that indicates a longer time remaining than if it's ~8,000

[null and void]

In economics terms, if 0bama pumps 9 trillion dollars into a 1 trillion dollar economy in 10 years we can predict that (by the time that 9 trillion multiplies its way through the banking system) a 2019 dollar will buy about one one hundredth as much as a 2009 dollar.

A 2019 dollar will be worth just one of today's pennies.

Kewl.

We'll all be millionaires...

[Cheburashka]

[adorno]

Suicidal planet seems on death spiral into star

Suicidal?

Geez!

Suicidal conveys a meaning of choice. Yet, it's "very likely", that the planet didn't make the choice to commit suicide. And, if the term "suicidal" is applicable, would it not have been just as descriptive to refer to the star as "homicidal" or "cannibal"?

Why not have referred to the apparent event as the logical ending to a planet which is being affected by the massive physical forces of two very large masses which are in very close proximity to each other?

[freedomlover]

“Suicidal?

Geez!

Suicidal conveys a meaning of choice. Yet, it’s “very likely”, that the planet didn’t make the choice to commit suicide. And, if the term “suicidal” is applicable, would it not have been just as descriptive to refer to the star as “homicidal” or “cannibal”?

Why not have referred to the apparent event as the logical ending to a planet which is being affected by the massive physical forces of two very large masses which are in very close proximity to each other? “

---

You’re no fun. Don’t you know that journalism is all about hyperbole these days?

[freedomlover]

We need a tax for this just in case....
—
Or a bailout