Astronomers find 'home from home' - 90 light years away!

spaceref.com ^ | 3 Jul 03 | staff

[DannyTN]

Does this mean that you would wish to take earth culture with you? Wouldn't that be excess baggage?

And risk repeating 6000 years of mistakes???! Leave everything behind when we've learned ..so.....much..........

I see your point.

[Political Junkie Too]

Are they implying that earth like planets may also be orbiting this star?

Following up on the explanations, Jupiter-like planets mark the point where the rocky planets separate from the gaseous planets. The solar system forms when gas and dust begin to swirl and rotate. As the dust molecules stick to each other, they get denser and begin to attract each other. The heavier ones fall to the center of the dust cloud and begin to form the star. Others clump together at various orbital distances relative to their mass and become the basis for the planets. Once the density of the protostar reaches the point of ignition, the star "lights up" and the explosion blows away all the loose dust, leaving the rocky clumps to become the planets (the dust is pushed to the outer limits, probably becoming the Oort Cloud that births comets). The clumps further away become the gas giants, like Jupiter. The "no man's land" between the rocky planets and the gas giants would be like the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

If a Jupiter-like planet were to have an elliptical orbit, it would sweep up all the inner dust, preventing the inner rocky planets from forming. A circular orbit would allow other circular-orbiting planets to form. That is why a Jupiter-like planet around a star is a promising sign.

-PJ

(I hope I got that right to a layman's degree of accuracy)

[RightWhale]

That's a clear explanation. I am wondering, though, why some meteorites are corbonaceous, some are rocky, and some are metallic. It looks like there was some differentiation and concentration at some point. Also, the rocky ones are made of oxide, so at what point did the metals become oxidised? Counting silicon as a metal.

[RightWhale]

corbonaceous

carbon, not corbon.

[conservababeJen]

I really hope the mods spend the time to see who it was (again) who destroyed what was a decent thread. In fact, I think it was you who posted late y'day afternoon about how polite it was due to the absence of a couple people. once those 2 or 3 showed up, the thread went Ape, then, when it was Already Losing Steam, it got very gor-y.

Oh looky, Kindergarten-code. How "polite".

[Prodigal Son]

Sorry but a parsec is not a measure of time but it's a measure of distance.

Time and distance are inextricably linked, are they not? To speak of one to the exclusion of the other is... Well, it's hard to do. At any rate, the Millenium Falcon was a spaceship in a science fiction movie. "Fiction" being the important word.

[Political Junkie Too]

I think that some meteorites are original cosmic dust, others are planetary fragments kicked up by impacts during formation, and still others are fragments kicked up by impacts after formation.

-PJ

[MHGinTN]

I'm wondering about the implications for that 'famous' likelihood of life supporting planets in the universe equation ... Any idea of how many stars they've surveyed so far to come up with this first one that fits most closely to our own arrangement?... Out of the assumed number of stars in the universe, is the Drake equation going up or down in likelihoods?

[RightWhale]

Van Flandern was on Coast this week with his exploding planet hypothesis. The asteroids and the other pieces that we see as meteorites seem to have been part of a planet that broke apart. It's an old idea, except for the part where Mars was a moon of this exploded planet. Perhaps this exploded planet was a gas giant, too, and all that is left is pieces of the rocky core. It's at the distance-from-the-sun junction where rocky planets and gas giants meet.

[js1138]

Sorry but a parsec is not a measure of time but it's a measure of distance. 1 parsec = 3.26 lightyears or 19,200,000,000,000 miles.

That's what they told George Lukas, but he's a lot richer than either of us.

[RightWhale]

how many stars they've surveyed so far

Their data is pretty good out to about 50 lightyears. Special circumstances let them see planetary systems farther out. There are about 101 known planetary systems found so far, and 20% or so have at least 2 known planets. They've just begun the search, 7 planets were identified last week. There will be a lot more, no doubt.

[donh]

Why? Honestly, I don't know.

Because, I rather suspect, the game is effective propaganda, not argumentation. They try to trash threads that make good propaganda for evolution. They stay marginally polite on threads that feature dense, legitimate-looking creation science early on.

[ALS]

two lies just makes two lies

nothing more

(see tag)

[Prodigal Son]

btw - does evolution further or support conservatism?

Out of sheer curiosity, what has evolution to do with this article? And why is evolution a matter of conservative/liberal politics? That's silly. I mean, it either occurred or it didn't. If it occurred does this forever render conservative beliefs invalid? That's nonsense.

[balrog666]

I'm now convinced those certain unnamed few do that to those threads on purpose. Why? Honestly, I don't know. It serves no purpose at all. Then again, the constant Hitler, Stalin, Nazis, Satan, etc garbage is inhumanly annoying as well.

They just bury the evidence when they get backed into a corner - happens more and more frequently.

If the moderators just wanted to stop a (supposed) flame war, they could just lock the thread. That would leave all the good, friendly, pleasant posts available for future reference.

Of course, it would also expose the looneys as the fools they are when they try to rewrite history and anyone could verify who did, and did not, start, or engage in, any supposed "flame war".

That's why they have to erase the evidence of their past perfidy. I guess we have no choice but to live with that for the moment.

[ALS]

It has as much to do with this thread as the morons that accused me of getting a thread yanked.

Or did you just conveniently miss that?

see post #38

[Wolfstar]

A light year is the time/distance it takes light to travel during one earth year. Unfortunately, I'm not mathematically astute enough to tell you how to calculate the distance light travels in one earth year.

[ALS]

It would bother me too if I lurked on conservative boards foisting marxist crap on unsuspecting christians/conservatives.

UNLESS, you can show where evolution furthers or supports conservatism.

can you?

[RightWhale]

what has evolution to do with this article? And why is evolution a matter of conservative/liberal politics?

Good questions. At this time evolution would be of interest in predicting whether there might be earthlike planets in that solar system. Predicting anything beyond that now is pure speculation. Evolution itself as a tool of science or refutation of evolution is of interest to some people, but you would have to ask them why.

[Prodigal Son]

see post #38

I saw it. And? What has evolution to do with this article?