Possible Earth-like planet discovered

Houston Comical (AP) ^ | June 13, 2005, 2:14PM

[m87339]

Ask a silly question....

[Squawk 8888]

Seeing the knowledge that gets posted to threads like this has me convinced we have lots of talent for a faculty at "Freep U"

[Junior]

I'm thinking our resident expert might be able to answer you on this. How 'bout it, RA?

[m87339]

Seeing the knowledge that gets posted to threads like this has me convinced we have lots of talent for a faculty at "Freep U"

That is SO true. Ask any question about anything (particularly science or law or [of course] politics, facts of any sort, history, the Bible, et. seq.) and you will get very erudite answers.

Post an innocent post and misspell something or use improper grammar and you will also get erudite answers!!

If I was an author, I would run my stuff by FR first for fact checking, syntax and quality.

[Squawk 8888]

That's a good idea- our spelling police and fact police would be doing us a favour!

[m87339]

Hey, do you like my tag? I changed from a more popular one because I thought this one was pretty funny ...

[HP8753]

The discovery of the planet, with an estimated radius about twice that of Earth

The planet is inhabited by SHORT LITTLE BEINGS that resemble Helen Thomas.

[RadioAstronomer]

There is an upper mass limit for planets. It gets a little fuzzy but here is a nice page describing such:

"The term "planet" carries the connotation of a larger, relatively spherical body in a mass range at least as great as that from Mercury to Jupiter. No universally accepted definition is available. Therefore for this discussion, a planet is defined as a star-orbiting object (of no presupposed, particular mode of origin) with a mass greater than that required for the development of a near-spherical shape (roughly the mass of the asteroid Vesta) but smaller than the upper limit in mass discussed below. Planets are thus generally larger than the asteroids of our own solar system, although Ceres would qualify in this nomenclature as a very small planet."

Check out the table. :-)

http://www7.nationalacademies.org/ssb/detectionch1.html

[null and void]

The upper limit on planet mass was chosen as follows. If sufficient mass is added to a body, normal crystalline or liquid matter becomes compressed and electron degeneracy becomes dominant. As seen in Figure 1.1, the radius of the body actually begins to decline with increasing mass at about this point. The precise position of turnover in the mass-radius diagram depends on composition and rotation and is thus somewhat ill-defined. However, it occurs near 2 MJupiter for a range of pure hydrogen and solar-composition models. This transition, at about 2 MJupiter, is thus chosen as the physical basis for defining the upper limit for planets and the lower limit for substellar objects. This limit also corresponds well with common conceptions of what a planet is.

Ah.

[CurlyBill]

I understand it's a strange planet, very different from Earth ... one where they actually CONVICT pedophiles and murderers!

[Hunble]

Since you are a scientist like myself, you also realize that all of these new planet discoveries are based upon the Doppler shift of the star's light, only along our line of sight. It is assumed that the rapid Doppler shift is caused by the orbit of a planet around the star.

If the radial velocity of a star changes in a period which is consistent with an orbiting planet, then it is now being classified as having possible planet.

I am sorry, but these rapid orbits are starting to disturb me.

This may be a new discovery of rapid pulsations of variable stars, which we have not observed before. Even the Sun, as much as it has been studied, is being suspected of being a variable star. As technology advances, our new discoveries are able to identify details that have never been observed before.

For the last few years, the discovery of new planets has excited me. However, these very short orbital periods are starting to make me wonder if we are not fooling ourselves.

Please do not get me wrong. The discovery and understanding of new stellar physics, which could simulate the rapid Doppler shifts observed, would be equally important.

Today, the study of physics and astronomy is getting very exciting. New things are being discovered almost every day.

[RadioAstronomer]

Hi! :-)

Instead of going into pages of detail here, this link should answer your question:

http://outreach.atnf.csiro.au/education/senior/astrophysics/variable_types.html

[inquest]

but I don't see a limit to how many rocks you could pile in one place

Me neither. I can see why it would be unlikely, though, at least with smaller stars like Gliese, because the chances of there being enough rocky material for a Jupiter-sized solid, probably aren't all that high. Jupiter's 318 times the mass of the earth. That's a lot of material.

[MEGoody]

A planet that may be Earth-like — but too hot for life as we know it — has been discovered orbiting a nearby star. The discovery of the planet, with an estimated radius about twice that of Earth, was announced today at the National Science Foundation.

So what exactly is it that makes it 'Earth-like'?

[Squawk 8888]

LOL seen that in a different form. Scares the cr@p out of every non-pilot I share it with.

[Squawk 8888]

So what exactly is it that makes it 'Earth-like'?

The fact that it's made of rock. This is a problem of journalism- what a scientist would regard as earth-like (a really big chunk of rock) is not what most people would consider earth-like (where we could leave our spacesuits at home).

[HamiltonJay]

No, its Ceti Alpha 5......



"KAHN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"..........

[longfellow]

Alpha city six..........KHHHHAAAASNNNNNN!!!

[SunkenCiv]

"It is orbiting a star called Gliese 876, 15 light years from Earth, with an orbit time of just 1.94 Earth days."

Heh... a satellite in prograde rotation will enjoy a transfer of momentum from the rotating parent body. I guess we all know what that means. ;') And this has happened before...

Scientists Find Extrasolar Planet With Atmosphere Much Like Jupiter
by John Noble Wilford
March 13, 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/13/science/13PLAN.html

[SunkenCiv]

Uh, hate to show what a geek I am, but I think you mean, "Seti Alpha V".