An artist's impression of XO-1b. A similar transiting planet was discovered by the XO Project of amateur and professional astronomers. Image: Rice University
Posted on 06/02/2007 8:34:27 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Astronomers have revealed one of the strangest planets yet discovered. The extrasolar oddity is 13 times the size of Jupiter and is so close to its star that it completes an orbit in just 3.2 days... The planet was found by the XO Project, a collaboration between researchers and amateur astronomers; who help to clock up detailed observations of potential planetary systems over time... Normally, orbits of objects in close proximity to stars become circular with time, said McCullough. The egg-shaped elliptical orbit suggests XO-3b has a near neighbour tugging it out of a circular path, he said. Alternatively, astronomers could be underestimating the time it takes for planetary orbits to become circular... Technically, any stellar mass large enough to fuse hydrogen – which means it has a mass around 80 times that of Jupiter – is classified a star. Brown dwarfs are massive objects that just fall short of that mark... The International Astronomical Union – the same body that stripped Pluto of its planet status last year – considers any object larger than 13 times the size of Jupiter, which does not fuse hydrogen, to be a brown dwarf. So, if XO-3b is classified as a planet instead, it will the largest planet ever discovered... Improved detection methods mean that one eighth of all exoplanets known were discovered in the past year, and that list is expanding rapidly.
(Excerpt) Read more at cosmosmagazine.com ...
An artist's impression of XO-1b. A similar transiting planet was discovered by the XO Project of amateur and professional astronomers. Image: Rice University
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I am to presume they mean earth days?
That’s correct.
Thanks. I figured as much, but they really ought to specify, being science writers and all.
But it has its moments.
This planet probably truly has a global warming issue.
The planets are nice...
I guess they have some form of rationale to arrive at 13, as opposed to 12 or 14, but such thing always have a ring of arbitrariness to me.
Careful, the PC Puhlice may be listenin'
Gary Coleman is a Republican, so I doubt he’d be offended.
Yeah but look at those moons :)
Nice orbs... ;)
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