Posted on 03/31/2006 5:21:28 PM PST by KevinDavis
Habitable, Earth-like planets can form even after giant planets have barrelled through their birthplace on epic migrations towards their host stars, new computer simulations suggest. The finding contradicts early ideas of how planets behave and suggests future space missions should search for terrestrial planets near known "hot Jupiters".
Many of the 160 or so known extrasolar planets are hot Jupiters - massive planets that are closer to their stars than Mercury is to our Sun. But the planets probably did not form in these scorching regions because there would not have been enough gas and dust there to amass such giant worlds.
That suggests the planets formed farther out and migrated towards their host stars as they lost energy due to friction with gas in their natal discs. But that migration was thought to prevent the formation of terrestrial planets. That is because the roving giants would hit or fling their rocky building blocks out of the planetary system, says Avi Mandell of Pennsylvania State University in University Park and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, US.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientistspace.com ...
Oh, I guess I'm raining on somebodies' parade. But really, life is interesting enough without indulging in such fantasies (at taxpayer expense usually).
I much rather see tax payer expense being spent on space exploration than on welfare exploration...
Herad the same nonsense you are spouting from a liberal this week. He called the search mental masturbation. Of course the same people said that about Columbus, Einstein, Going to the moon etc etc.
Solar system similar to ours discovered: US astronomers
Yahoo! News via Drudge | June 13, 2002 | Yahoo! News staff
Posted on 06/13/2002 7:17:37 PM EDT by Exit 109
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/699740/posts
Deadly Dance: Giant Planet Found Orbiting Huge Star
space DOT COM | 23 January 2003 | By Robert Roy Britt
Posted on 01/29/2003 9:26:26 AM EST by vannrox
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/831745/posts
All of a Sudden, the Neighborhood Looks a Lot Friendlier
NY Times | September 21, 2004 | DENNIS OVERBYE
Posted on 09/21/2004 6:38:18 PM EDT by neverdem
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1222888/posts
Moving the Orbits of Planets
David Jewitt | Last updated Sep 2004 | David Jewitt
Posted on 02/02/2006 12:44:25 PM EST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1570230/posts
You must have a very low opinion of our creator, I mean what a waste of space and opportunity it would be if that were true, that is we are his only creation. It is unimaginable how big the universe is I just can not accept that we are alone in it.
Death Spiral: Why Theorists Can't Make Solar Systems
SPACE.com | Tue March 28, 2006 | Ker Than
Posted on 03/29/2006 1:21:37 PM EST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1605529/posts
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