Astronomers may have image of extrasolar planet

SPACE.com ^ | May 10th 2004 | Robert Roy Britt

[presidio9]

This is one of the three new processed observations showing a point of light (in the upper right) that may be a planet or brown dwarf. An additional observation a few months from now is needed to show whether the object moves with the white dwarf and is therefore a companion, or if it is a background object moving at a different pace.

[farmfriend]

.

[kenth]

Through careful and advanced image analysis, I have come to a conclusion:



GIANT SPACE ANTS!

[presidio9]

"And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves."

[FourtySeven]

Clear as crystal! WTG guys! Now, if we can just get Hillary and the other of her clan to head back home, since we've positively identified their homestead, this country will be well on its way towards prosperity.

[RightWhale]

More than 120 are known

There are billions, but none even come close to being earthlike.

[robertpaulsen]

Here's a better picture of the White Dwarf:

[talleyman]

I hope they name the planet "Plexus" -
"Class, this is the extrasolar Plexus..."

[NRA2BFree]

You might want to see this. It's pretty kewl. ;-)

[Rocket1968]

later

[Notforprophet]

"Let me be the first to welcome our new insect overlords."

NFP

[yankeedame]

GIANT SPACE ANTS!

Just don't let them get in to the sugar.

[Havoc]

ROFL - I was lookin at it thinking they ran into a bug at high speed. Kinda like the opening of MIB lol

[Havoc]

I might add that it doesn't look too dissimilar from what One sees from the inside of a motorcycle helmet in summer and at speed lol

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I was thinkin' Mickey Rooney.

[finnigan2]

My more complete analysis, based on your advanced image enhancement, reveals that you missed a limb of the space creature which appears, dimly but clearly, in the 10 o'clock position. Carefully counting the revised number of limbs, I arrive at a total of eight which indicates, not an ant, but a GIANT SPACE SPIDER!
In fact, the white hazy area in the night skies which generations of astronomers has taken to be the, "milky way" is in fact THE GIANT SPACE SPIDERS WEB, which is slowly expanding to ensnare our home world. My calculations indicate that our total encirclement will be completed and our doom assured by 12:01 AM, EST on April 1st, 2005.
Resistance is futile!

[longshadow]

first the extra-solar planet deniers (ESPD) screamed: "there's no evidence!!!", then astronomers found spectroscopic evidence of wobbling in nearby stars consistent with planet-sized masses orbiting them, so the ESPD's then screamed: "Yeah, well nobody has ever seen one....", and now it appears, pending further verification, that astronomers have directly imaged an extra-solar planet.

So what will the ESPD's next line of defense/goalpost moving be? "Well, no one has ever tasted one....."?

[Physicist]

They'll say, "Not a planet. This is a brown dwarf star." They'll call Jupiter a dwarf star if they have to, just as surely as the next guy--or quite likely the same guy--will call homo erectus an ape to rescue his worldview.

[longshadow]

They'll say, "Not a planet. This is a brown dwarf star." They'll call Jupiter a dwarf star if they have to, just as surely as the next guy--or quite likely the same guy--will call homo erectus an ape to rescue his worldview.

As usual, your analysis is on the money. But at some point it becomes pernicious to call Jupiter-sized objects "brown dwarfs," as they are something like 80 times less massive than the minimum mass it takes to sustain nuclear fusion in the core, which is the signature characteristic that makes a "star" a "star." Not that that will stop them from trying.....

[PatrickHenry]

The Earth is not rotating...nor is it going around the sun..