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Deadly Dance: Giant Planet Found Orbiting Huge Star
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| 23 January 2003
| By Robert Roy Britt
Posted on 01/29/2003 6:26:26 AM PST by vannrox
Deadly Dance: Giant Planet Found Orbiting Huge Star By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer posted: 07:00 am ET 23 January 2003
A large planet recently found orbiting a distant star serves as a preview for the likely frying fate that awaits our own planet.
The star, called HD 47536, is more than 23 times the diameter of our Sun. It is the largest star ever found to harbor a planet. The discovery was announced Wednesday.
The planet is five to 10 times heavier than Jupiter and orbits the star more than twice as far as Earth is from the Sun, or at a distance of roughly 186 million miles (300 million kilometers). It goes around the star every 712 days.
The 6th-magnitude giant star HD 47536, around which a planet has been found. CREDIT: Digital Sky Survey
30 Billion Earths? New Estimate of Exoplanets in Our Galaxy
The star is in the southern constellation of Canis Major (The Great Dog) and is at the very fringe of visibility for naked-eye observers under perfectly dark skies. It is almost 400 light-years away. Only one other planet has ever been found farther from our solar system.
Along with other recent discoveries, including a planet detected in a system oftwo closely orbiting stars, astronomers are realizing that planets can grow to all sorts of sizes in a myriad of environments and orbital configurations.
The new observations were made using the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile. The work was led by German astronomer Johny Setiawan.
The planet was not seen directly. Instead, it was detected by noting a gravitational wobble it induces on the star. This so-called radial-velocity method is to date the most successful used to find planets outside our solar system.
Interestingly, however, this discovery was a side show to the real work of observing giant stars in an effort to spot variations in their shape, size and output.
About two-thirds of the 80 star examined in the study were found to wobble. Some of the wobbles are probably induced by companion stars, astronomers said. But HD 47536 attracted attention and was examined more closely.
"We are very excited about this discovery because it now widens the search for exoplanets towards more massive stars," said Luca Pasquini, an ESO researcher also involved in the find.
Massive stars typically rotate very rapidly, making observations difficult. But as they age, the stars inflate and their rotation is slowed, "and we then have a much better chance of detecting possible exoplanets in orbit around them," Pasquini said.
Even though HD 47536 and its planet don't resemble the Sun and Earth, a destructive process going on there is similar to one that will occur here in a few billion years. The star is swelling so dramatically that the fraction of sky it occupies, as seen from the planet, is growing, astronomers say. Temperatures are rising, along with winds. In some tens of millions of years, the planet will literally fry.
When a similar scenarioplays out on Earth, extreme drought will prevail in the early stages, theorists say. Eventually, the oceans will evaporate. Ultimately, Earth will be incinerated. Unless, some have suggested, our world moves outward (due to the reduced gravity of a dying Sun). One team of theorists has even calculated a way to move our planet out of danger. |
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: big; cold; earth; earthlike; explore; far; huge; light; lightyear; massive; nasa; planet; space; star; sun; xplanets
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Very interesting. I wonder how many planets have been discovered so far? I'm losing track.
1
posted on
01/29/2003 6:26:26 AM PST
by
vannrox
To: vannrox
How will the greenfreaks stop this type of global warming!?!?!?
Face it hippies, our world will end in a firey hell. No federal regulations against a shoe factory in Pittsburgh will stop it.
2
posted on
01/29/2003 6:29:30 AM PST
by
smith288
(the tag that itches the back of your neck)
To: vannrox
3
posted on
01/29/2003 6:30:51 AM PST
by
vannrox
(The Preamble to the Bill of Rights - without it, our Bill of Rights is meaningless!)
To: vannrox
This could be series! Time to take a long shower.;~)
4
posted on
01/29/2003 6:35:20 AM PST
by
verity
To: smith288
5
posted on
01/29/2003 6:35:47 AM PST
by
vannrox
(The Preamble to the Bill of Rights - without it, our Bill of Rights is meaningless!)
To: verity
... that will occur here in a few billion years ... I think you may run out of hot water . . .
6
posted on
01/29/2003 6:38:01 AM PST
by
AnAmericanMother
(. . . and don't hold your breath)
To: vannrox
One team of theorists has even calculated a way to move our planet out of danger. Talk about nothing better to do. Calculating a solution for a problem that won't happen for millions of years? I mean I have got better things to do with my time.
7
posted on
01/29/2003 6:41:16 AM PST
by
kjam22
To: vannrox
The planet is five to 10 times heavier than Jupiter and orbits the star more than twice as far as Earth is from the Sun, or at a distance of roughly 186 million miles (300 million kilometers). It goes around the star every 712 days This isn't exactly a planet as it's pushing the envelope for a protostar or brown dwarf classification. Of course being that large does mean that it will create it's own habitable zone in the form of radiated heat from the planet.
Come to think of it there was an article that postulated that Earth type planets may not be able to survive gravitational pertubations around stars due to influences from gas giants.
We may find that there are more habitable giant moons (like Callisto/Europa/Ganymede size) than habitable planets outside the solar system.
8
posted on
01/29/2003 6:46:12 AM PST
by
Centurion2000
(The meek shall inherit the Earth. The stars belong to the bold.)
To: Centurion2000
9
posted on
01/29/2003 6:51:44 AM PST
by
vannrox
(The Preamble to the Bill of Rights - without it, our Bill of Rights is meaningless!)
To: vannrox
"It is almost 400 light-years away."What!?!! That's practically in the back yard!
To: vannrox
11
posted on
01/29/2003 6:57:46 AM PST
by
vannrox
(The Preamble to the Bill of Rights - without it, our Bill of Rights is meaningless!)
To: vannrox
12
posted on
01/29/2003 6:57:48 AM PST
by
vannrox
(The Preamble to the Bill of Rights - without it, our Bill of Rights is meaningless!)
To: kjam22
I mean I have got better things to do with my time. Yes, but will what you do with your time be as lucrative as receiving federally funded tax dollars to propose a solution?
To: vannrox
For an interesting alternative explanation of these discoveries visit this site:
http://www.electric-cosmos.org
Binary stars and the common configuration of a star and gas giant planets may be the result of the electrical nature of the universe.
As an EE this makes a lot of sense to me, but the site is written for the lay-person with links to more thorough research.
enjoy...
14
posted on
01/29/2003 7:00:37 AM PST
by
destroid
To: Centurion2000
"pertubations around stars due to influences from gas giants. "
There is a celebrity-activist joke in there somewhere.
15
posted on
01/29/2003 7:06:48 AM PST
by
Rebelbase
(Rock with Celtic roots at http://www.sevennations.com)
To: vannrox
read later
To: vannrox
Bloated... red... in the "Big Dog" constellation... I propose that we name this star "Clinton's Nose".
17
posted on
01/29/2003 7:47:23 AM PST
by
steve-b
To: smith288
Face it hippies, our world will end in a firey hell. In a million years, either we won't be around, or we will have figured out a way to move the earth to a better location. Either way, I won't worry about it.
18
posted on
01/29/2003 8:00:18 AM PST
by
SauronOfMordor
(To see the ultimate evil, visit the Democrat Party)
To: vannrox
Very interesting. I wonder how many planets have been discovered so far?I think it's around 100 or so. ("Or so" meaning +/- 25).
To: SauronOfMordor
Exactly... No matter how clean we keep this place...its destined for doom... and no EPA regulation to reduce pollution from 12% to 10% will stop it. Stupid greenfreaks.
PS- I dont think we are going trekking to any planets. Just a belief of mine.
20
posted on
01/29/2003 8:22:45 AM PST
by
smith288
(the tag that itches the back of your neck)
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