Posted on 12/03/2006 11:21:07 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Luhman and his colleagues used the Hubble Space Telescope to photograph an object, about 10 Jupiter masses, orbiting the star CHXR 73. The orbiting object's mass alone would typically identify it as a heavy planet spawned from a disk that once surrounded this young star. However, the newfound object lies about five times as far from CHXR 73 as Pluto's average distance from the sun. Theory suggests that a gas-and-dust disk isn't likely to contain enough material that far from a star to make a planet... Distinguishing between brown dwarfs and planets is important, says Luhman. A brown dwarf could have its own retinue of planets, which astronomers could search for. In contrast, a planet at such a great distance from its parent star would most likely be a loner. In a report presented in August at the meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Prague, researchers suggested that brown dwarfs might form in a different manner from both stars and planets. According to the new hypothesis, brown dwarfs are much smaller than bona fide stars because a dwarf arises from the sudden fragmentation of a ring or disk of material surrounding a pair of brand new stars. Planets might also arise in this manner, but the fragmentation of a large disk surrounding two stars favors the formation of a brown dwarf, according to study coauthor Greg Laughlin of the University of California, Santa Cruz... It might be that planet formation proceeds at different rates and in different ways at different distances from stars, says extrasolar-planet hunter Ray Jayawardhana of the University of Toronto. Moreover, determining just how little mass an object can have and still qualify as a star provides critical information about the history of star formation throughout the universe.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
CONUNDRUM. Astronomers have photographed one of the smallest objects (arrow) ever found orbiting an ordinary star beyond the solar system. Circling the young red dwarf star CHXR 73, the body weighs in at about 10 times the mass of Jupiter, small enough to be a planet but big enough to be a failed star called a brown dwarf. Luhman, NASA, ESA
Scientists snap first images of brown dwarf in planetary system
Penn State Live | Monday, September 18, 2006 | Barbara Kennedy
Posted on 09/18/2006 2:05:12 PM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1703664/posts
oops, I see there was indeed a topic about CHXR 73, but that didn't show up in a search, because that label wasn't there. Oh well. ;')
Planet or failed star? Hubble finds strange object
spaceflightnow.com | 09/07/06
Posted on 09/07/2006 10:01:32 PM EDT by KevinDavis
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1697510/posts
points to:
Planet or failed star? Hubble finds strange object
SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSTITUTE NEWS RELEASE
Posted: September 7, 2006
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0609/07hubbleplanet/
Then there's Planet "Thetan"...
Has there ever been a movie featuring Marvin Martian? If not, that's too bad. :')
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