Posted on 08/02/2018 1:53:13 PM PDT by ETL
Designated HD 26965b, the newly-detected alien world has a mass of 8.47 Earth masses and is located a mere 16 light-years away.
This planet revolves around the bright K-class dwarf star HD 26965 once every 42.4 days.
The host star is approximately 6.9 billion years old, has a mass about 78% of the Sun’s and a radius 87% as large.
“HD 26965 is the primary of a very widely separated triple system. The other two companions are an M4 dwarf and a white dwarf,” said University of Florida astronomer Bo Ma and co-authors.
“This star is a very bright metal poor star with an absolute magnitude of V=4.4. This makes it the second brightest star in the night sky with a super-Earth detection so far, just behind HD 20794 (V=4.3).”
“One interesting fact is that HD 20794 has a similar metallicity as HD 26965, which is consistent with the finding that smaller planets are detected around stars with wide-ranging metallicities.”
“With a minimum mass of 8.4 Earth masses, HD 26965b likely possesses a gaseous atmosphere based on other planets with known masses and radii,” they added.
“However, we note that Kepler-10c has a similar mass and orbit, is hosted by a similar, low-metallicity star, and does not possess an envelope, so HD 26965b may be a similar type of world.”
HD 26965b was found using the ‘wobble’ method, called radial velocity, by the Dharma Planet Survey (DPS).
This method watches for the telltale jitters of stars as they are pulled back and forth by the gravitational tugs of an orbiting planet; the size of the wobble reveals the mass of the planet.
(Excerpt) Read more at sci-news.com ...
Nanu Nanu
Even moving at 1 million miles per hour, or over 5 times the speed of light, it would still take over 671 years to get there. Pack a lunch!
Bo Ma?
Is that a name or a fortune cookie?
They use Hipparcos Satellite to measure the distance using parallax.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipparcos
Basically, you look at the star while we are on one side of the Sun, comparing it’s location to the stars that are visually around it, then, in 6 months, check it again.
Using Trig, you know that the baseline distance from the two points is 186,000,000 million miles (approx), and you know the angle at the apex where the star is and the angles from the two earth positions.
I recommend reading “Parallax” by Alan Hirshfeld (if it can be found is about 15 years old now). Great read on how astronomers made this work.
Hey! They discovered Vulcan.
Spock, come and take me to the stars!
“The eight times gravity worries me more.”
Me, too.
I’m trying to lose ten pounds and that’s hard enough. Imagine trying to lose eighty pounds instead!
Check your math again.
Should be able to reach it in three jumps in Elite Dangerous.
i’m aware of that
Space is a vacume. There is nothing there. You can’t bend nothing.
Means we will NEVER be where it is.
You or I probably will never be there.
Maybe the people that follow us might.
Eight times the mass does not mean eight times the surface gravity.
The author ignited a tweet storm by using the now socially unacceptable term "dwarf" star, rather than the preferred, "little person" star.
“Does the author have any idea of the actual distance and the fact that the methodology that “discovers” these planets is at best unproven.”
Yes but that makes it as scientifically based as global warming. We should start shipping all Democrats and Muslims there immediately to create a marxist Utopia. They can send us updates occasionally and we can ignore them.
Maybe they mean this kind of super;
Adult material warning;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=77&v=weelryxQx48
Yeah, but if you do a million miles per second it will just take a few years.
Uhmmm...it’s ~16 light years away. Traveling at 5x the speed of light, it would take 3.2 years. Now, traveling at 1,000,000 mph, well, that would take ~11,000 years. Either way...we’re not getting there any time soon
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.