NASA: Planet Formed 13 Billion Years Ago

Yahoo! News ^ | 7/10/03 | Deborah Zabarenko - Reuters

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -

The oldest planet ever detected is nearly 13 billion years old and more than twice the size of Jupiter, locked in orbit around a whirling pulsar and a white dwarf, astronomers said on Thursday.

Compared with the relative youth and stability of our own celestial neighborhood, where Earth and the other planets orbit a single 5-billion-year-old star in a quiet neighborhood of the Milky Way, the ancient group that holds the oldest planet has had a boisterous past, scientists said at a NASA (news - web sites) briefing.

The old planet is located near the heart of a globular star cluster some 5,600 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius. A light-year is about 6 trillion miles, about the distance light travels in a year.

Globular clusters were generally thought to be lousy environments for forming planets, because the clusters coalesced so early in the universe's development that the heavier elements needed to make planets were not yet present in abundance.

This finding, made with data from the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope (news - web sites), indicates that even globular clusters can produce planets despite the small amount of heavy elements, said Steinn Sigurdsson of Pennsylvania State University.

FIRST GENERATION PLANET

"What we think we've found is an example of the first generation of planets formed in the universe," Sigurdsson said. "We think this planet formed with its star, 12.713 billion years ago when the (Milky Way) galaxy was very young, just in the process of forming."

By comparison, Earth and the rest of our solar system is a third-generation affair, made from gas that was polluted by the ashes of earlier generations of stars. And the sun is off by itself, not interacting directly with any other stars.

But globular clusters are like crowded marketplaces, with stars so close together they are forced to interact. That meant that the old planet went along for the ride, Sigurdsson said.

After forming around a sun-like star, the old planet was dragged with the star toward the core of the globular cluster. Then the planet was pulled toward a neutron star and its companion, enmeshing all four bodies into a tangle of orbits.

The neutron star grabbed the sun-like star and the old planet and booted its original companion into space. In time, the planet's star aged into a red giant and then into a white dwarf, a dying star that can only shine with stored heat.

The neutron star evolved into a fast-whirling pulsar and changes in how it spun helped scientists determine that one of the three cosmic objects dancing in space was a planet, said Harvey Richer of the University of British Columbia.

The old planet is too far away to be directly observed, but because it exerts a slight gravitational tug on the pulsar it orbits, scientists figured out its mass and position based on its pull on the pulsar, Richer said.

The old planet is among more than 100 planets detected outside our solar system.

[Aric2000]

But we DO know, it's 6000 years old, and if you disagree, you are a godless atheist who will rot in the underworld for all eternity!!

If science disagrees with religious doctrine, then science had better find a way to come to the RIGHT answer, for there will be H#ll to pay otherwise, you godless communists.

/Freaking out fundamentalist mode off

[kjam22]

I have a lot more skepticizm about people who say the universe is 13 billion years old, than I do people who say it is 6000 years old.

The problem is that a lot of these same people who say the universe is 13 billion years old are the ones who are now saying... "Gee, Pluto isn't doing what we thought it would be doing".

Really, the idea the the government pays people with tax dollars to guess about the makeup of dark holes, and multiple dimenisons, and the age of the universe, and all that cosmic stuff..... well... it's not where I would allocate the funds.

[kjam22]

Some of the people saying the universe is 13 billion years old are the same ones that were circulating the amazing photos of the cone nebula a couple of years back. Truly stunning photos of deep space, until we realized it was colorized and enhanced according to one's imagination.

[Aric2000]

It's called Science, and when something is NOT doing what you think that it ought to be doing, then you figure out why.

This is science in action, the apollo and space suttle have cost us BILLIONS, but the technology that created them made TRILLIONS for the private sector. Which made the quality of life for EVERY american better then it was. Teflon is one real good example.

Science is an investment, and a damn good one.

[N. Theknow]

NASA: Planet Formed 13 Billion Years Ago

Yippee!

I had 12.5 billion in the over/under office pool!

[js1138]

The problem is that a lot of these same people who say the universe is 13 billion years old are the ones who are now saying... "Gee, Pluto isn't doing what we thought it would be doing".

Would you care to be specific about that?

[kjam22]

How many billion did the government spend to invent tefflon??

And you call that a good deal?

What I'm saying is that if they can't get Pluto right.... I doesn't convince me that they understand deep space that well.

Sure science says "here's what we think... and we go with that until we are proven wrong". So that being true, how much stock should I really place in the 13 billion year number?

[kjam22]

Just do a FR search with Pluto in the thread title. It's been discussed, and the link to the article I'm sure would be there.

[js1138]

until we realized it was colorized and enhanced according to one's imagination.

So it's kind of like a conspiracy? All made up?

[Aric2000]

First of all, do you have ANY idea how much money Teflon has made for the private sector?

Any clue, it is by now in the 100's of billions, if not trillions of dollars.

Also, what is this thing you have about Pluto, care to enlighten us on what the devil you are talking about?

And acually, 13 billion years is a little young, it's actually more like 15 billion for the age of the universe.

This planet just happens to be one of the oldest that we have found.

[kjam22]

I wonder how many teflon pans have been sold? More than that... I wonder how many would have been sold if teflon weren't around??? You think everyone with a teflon skillet would just not own a skillet if teflon weren't invented?

Most people here prefer capitalism where private industry is private and free to function as it chooses. Some here want our tax dollars to help it along?? Is that what we are saying?

[kjam22]

until we realized it was colorized and enhanced according to one's imagination. So it's kind of like a conspiracy? All made up?

You do agree that the photos they released were colorized and enhanced based on imagination don't you??

I dont' know if it's a conspiracy or not. You tell me why they didn't just release actual photos taken by the Huble. You've got my undivided attention.

[js1138]

So you don't really know anythung about Pluto, at least nothing you can say in your own words. It wouldn't, perhaps, be related to the fact that we know more about it than we did ten years ago, would it?

[kjam22]

I've never been to Pluto. I've never sent a probe there. I just know that the guys who have sent one there say... "gee.. Pluto is not doing what we expect". Fine... it isn't doing what they expect. Does that inspire me to think the rest of the universe is doing what they expect?

No I don't know beans about Pluto. But I'm not the one announcing the age of the universe either.

[BMCDA]

Well, many images of space objects are "false color" images, so what's your point?

[js1138]

You do agree that the photos they released were colorized and enhanced based on imagination don't you??

No I don't. Colorizing images is not based on imagination, any more that a graph of data is based on imagination. In both cases, data is translated from raw numbers to a form we can better understand.

[kjam22]

My point is this..... the send out those incredible pictures of the cone nebula and say... wow... look at the pictures we got from the Hubel. So that we build more hubles, or spend more money into their little nest. So that it looks like the money already invested is doing such good, and that we are learning so much. When in reality the picture is about 3/4's computer generated from someone's imagination.

It's a con. You know what a con is don't you??

[longshadow]

This discovery is pretty interesting, isn't it?

Sure is.

primordial heavy element-free stars with primordial heavy element-free planets. And only 5600 ly away.

[RightWhale]

If you think that it is money well spent for the federal government to pay people to guesstimate how old the universe is

They are looking for habitable planets. That's good. When they look for life, they are stepping on the toes of the Dept of the Army.

[kjam22]

Let me know when you have a link to the actual photos taken by the huble of the cone nebula.