Earth-like planet discovered 50 light-years away

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/08/26/new.planet/index.html

snip
(SPACE.com) -- In a discovery that has left one expert stunned, European astronomers have found one of the smallest planets known outside our solar system, a world about 14 times the mass of our own around a star much like the sun.

It could be a rocky planet with a thin atmosphere, a sort of "super Earth," the researchers said today.

But this is no typical Earth. It completes its tight orbit in less than 10 days, compared to the 365 required for our year. Its daytime face would be scorched.

The planet's surface conditions aren't known, said Portuguese researcher Nuno Santos, who led the discovery. "However, we can expect it to be quite hot, given the proximity to the star."
/snip

[goforit]

1. Hooray!!!!........Could it be a planet of Peace???

:bounce:

[THUNDER HANDS]

2. I shall call you squishy, and you shall be my squishy

awww, what a cwute wittle pwannet.

[Flagius]

3. Thats not very "Earth-Like".

Sounds more like a giant Mercury to me.

[truthspeaker]

4. typical science reporting

:(

[Flagius]

6. Seriously.

No wonder people still believe in Tarot, UFOs, and Dowsing...

[Lisa]

15. or Crawford, Texas!

Hot -- difficult to breathe -- and if the gravity is much higher than Earth's, if I remember my planetary geology correctly, the topography should be pretty flat.

W would be right at home there.

[_NorCal_D_]

20. I'm assuming

that it's being described as Earth-like due to the fact that it isn't a gas giant. :shrug:

Though you are correct, it does sound more like a really big Mercury.

[Dogmudgeon]

5. Earth-Like?

It's huge, it's heavy, it's practically touching the star it revolves around, and they're calling it "Earth-like"?

I guess standards have fallen ...

--bkl

[stellanoir]

7. great. . .

a place we can all migrate to if * manipulates another election and reinstates the draft.

[left is right]

21. or better yet,

Maybe we could lay a cocaine trail from the WH to the planet and Bush would follow his nose

[htuttle]

8. It's not clear to me how they know it's 'rocky'

It's about the size of Uranus, so it could easily be a gas planet. They say the star itself seems to have more metal than our own sun, but they say they only have gravitational evidence of this new planet -- it doesn't say they've done any mass spectrography on it (apart from the star).

:shrug:

[daleo]

11. That is a good question

If the star was about the same mass as our sun, an orbital period of 10 days would calculate to an orbit of about .09 A.U. (a bit less than ten million miles, which is closer than Mercury is to our sun). Perhaps they are just assuming a gas giant couldn't exist for long that close to a star. I believe most solar system formation theories maintained that rocky planets would be close to a star, while gas giants would be fairly distant.

If I recall correctly, more metal implies a star has been formed out of "older" matter - matter that has been gone through more star evolution cycles. Maybe that means there was more heavy matter for planetary formation as well, allowing the formation of a very large terrestrial type planet quite close to the star in question.

Most of the recent planet discoveries seem to be putting the models of solar system formation into doubt, though. These observations are still highly speculative.

[Lisa]

16. I was thinking along those lines too ...

A combination of the high temperatures vaporizing lighter elements, and also the T-Tauri effect when the star ignited ... though admittedly my planetary science knowledge is seriously outdated.

[daleo]

17. I had to look up T-Tauri effect

So your planetary science knowledge is doing better than mine.;)

[ProfessorGAC]

19. That'd Be My Take, Too

A planet that close to a star that size would get way too hot for the gasses to maintain their coalescence due to gravity. While the pressure near the core would still keep some of the elements liquid, the continuous spray from the surface would reduce the mass, and so, the gravity over time.

Eventually, their wouldn't be enough gravity to hold it together and the gasses would fully vaporize.

Also, if there were intense vaporization at those temperatures, there would be a clear ionic trail due to the high velocity of the planet and the rub of what is still solid against the gas cloud. That would be detectable by IR and uV, quite easily.

So, that's probably why they're assuming a high temperature solid consistency.
The Professor

[Rainbowreflect]

13. Flash back to Jr. High humor.

"It's about the size of Uranus, so it could easily be a gas planet."
You said Uranus hee hee hee & gas, hee hee hee.
Ok I feel better.

[Hobarticus]

9. Do they have oil????

[BootinUp]

10. LOL n/t

[Ganja Ninja]

12. Yes and WMD's too.

It has yet to be determined whether or not they hate us for our freedoms.

[smiley_glad_hands]

14. Thats where I'm going when the rapture comes. eom

[skip fox]

18. What are we waiting for?

Let's go.

[Aunt Anti-bush]

22. Are there any vacancies?

You know, in case * does get re-elected, I'm trying to keep my options open for another place to live...

:)

[Zech Marquis]

23. wow

:wow: I wouldn't be surprised if there are many more of these planets that haven't been revealed yet--that would make the repukes self imposed center of the universe beliefs in the trash :evilgrin:

[lil-petunia]

24. Oh shit. they spotted us. send the meteors now.

BEFORE they decide to visit.