Blurry Image Might Be First Picture of Exoplanet

[Khephra]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The image of a blurry red ball near a failed star just might be the first picture ever snapped of a planet outside our solar system, an astronomer who helped find the object said on Monday.

If it is a planet, it is probably a gas giant like Jupiter, said Ben Zuckerman of the University of California, Los Angeles, part of an international team of scientists that located the object.

Close by cosmic standards, the object known as a Giant Planet Candidate Companion is some 230 light-years away from Earth. A light-year is about 6 trillion miles, the distance light travels in a year.

Scientists have detected more than 100 of these so-called exoplanets, but have never directly observed them. Until now, they have confirmed these planets' existence by a characteristic wobble they cause in the stars they orbit.



http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=6223961§ion=news

[oldhat]

1. PNAC

This is all evidence of a PNAC and Israeli Mossad plot to make us believe in exoplanets. I can clearly see missiles attached to the underside of the exoplanet just before it crashed into the WTC.

[DerBeppo]

2. if you look closely

you can see that the planet has no windows either.

[oldhat]

4. Exoplanet

This exoplanet appeared in the CIA beheading video when the exoplanet faked the execution of PNAC/Israeli Mossad agent Nick Berg.

[Protected]

6. You guys crack me up

oh boy.

[alittlelark]

3. And were exactly did you come from?

[Nevernose]

11. Ridiculous

Exo-planets are clearly part of the homosexual agenda.

Please consult your reference manuals: it's item nine, between the section on "Subverting the Sacred Institution of Marriage" and "Corrupting America's Youth."

There was talk of cooperation on theories of exoplanets between The International Union of Sneaky Zionists (IUSZ) and the Nefarious Homosexual Agenda (NHA) at last year's World Conference of Various Evil Organizations, but the negotiations broke down.

[Ediacara]

5. Maybe it's the perspective....

but it looks HUGE next that star...

[TaleWgnDg]

7. Oh, WOW! Isn't that the planet that Dumbya wanted to

go to? Hurry get him aboard a spaceship! :crazy:


================================================
FLIP-FLOP-FLIP by GWBush and Company
1. "We will win the war and there will be costs," Bush said
during a visit to the Pentagon, September 17, 2001.
2. On August 30 2004, GWBush was asked, "Can we win?"
GWBush said, "I don't think you can win it."
3. In a speech to the national convention of the American
Legion on August 31, 2004, Bush said, "We meet today in
a time of war for our country, a war we did not start yet one
that we will win."
===============================================

[Systematic Chaos]

8. Well it is a giant ball of gas next to a "failed" star

Sounds like he'd be perfectly at home.

[Bundbuster]

9. If there's black gold, I'll pay for his ticket

[daleo]

10. Mean distance to Pluto is about 40 A.U.

So this planet is substantially farther from its star (failed or not) than any planet's in our solar system, assuming that the 55 AU in the photo is indicating the planet-star distance.

Funny how they call these brown dwarfs "failed stars", like it their job to become a star or something. In the photo, the start does seem to be emitting a fair bit of radiation.

[kysrsoze]

12. Finally, someone wants to talk about scientific merits of this story

I think it's very cool. I'm looking forward to the day when we can "see" other planets. For 2020, NASA has a system of 4 linked deep-space deployed telescopes (2 generations forward from Hubble) which they believe will be able to visually see a near-earth sized planet orbiting a nearby star (somehow filtering the star's glare). It will also be able to monitor the light given off from the planet to determine if it likely supports life. Very cool, too bad we won't be getting to those places anytime soon.

[daleo]

13. I gather that spectral lines indicating free oxygen mean life

My reading is that free oxygen doesn't stay around too long in an atmosphere (not by geological time considerations anyway), so the existence of oxygen spectra would almost surely mean that living processes are rejuvenating the atmosphere.

It will be very interesting when these satellites (and whatever other technology may come along) are in operation. It looks to me like there will be a lot of planets found, based on what we have already seen the last decade or so. Personally, I think indications of life won't be far behind.

If NASA doesn't do it, the Europeans probably will.