Posted on 01/29/2003 6:26:26 AM PST by vannrox
Deadly Dance: Giant Planet Found Orbiting Huge StarBy Robert Roy BrittSenior 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. 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. 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. 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. |
That would be a way kewl place to live. Imagine what earth's sky would look like if the moon filled half of it!
Of course, the view would be most impressive especially if the dwarf has an extensive rocky ring system.
I could imagine the planet/moon to tide locked to it's primary planet and still have all parts illuminated by the star.
Compare to our own moon. Only the extreme polar regions don't have a 'month' long day cycle.
Object Survives Being Swallowed by a Star
Space.com on Yahoo | 8/3/06 | Ker Than
Posted on 08/03/2006 1:40:47 PM EDT by NormsRevenge
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