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Huge Planet Defies Explanation; ZOMG ITS BIG
Tweet Topic Started: Oct 11 2008, 01:12 AM (133 Views)
Undisputed_Seraphim Oct 11 2008, 01:12 AM Post #1
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Dated: October 6, Monday 2008.

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Astronomers have sighted a very dense planet-sized object that orbits its parent star in just four days and six hours.
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The object, COROT-exo-3b, fits into the category of a failed star known as a brown dwarf, but the team that made the discovery has not ruled out the possibility that it is a planet. Brown dwarfs are failed stars. They burn lithium but are not massive enough to generate the thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen and helium that powers real stars. Planets do none of that.

"It has puzzled us; we're not sure where to draw the boundary between planets and brown dwarfs," said Hans Deeg, an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) in the Canary Islands, Spain.

The object has a mass 20 times greater than that of Jupiter, but is roughly the same size. It falls outside the range of planets and stars discovered to date, with the largest planets having 12-Jupiter-mass and the smallest stars 70-Jupiter-mass.

If astronomers confirm the object as a planet, it would weigh in as the most massive and densest planet found so far. A full study will be detailed in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

"COROT-exo-3b might turn out to be a rare object found by sheer luck", said Francois Bouchy, an astronomer at the Institut d'Astrophysique in Paris. "But it might just be a member of a new-found family of very massive planets that encircle stars more massive than our sun. We're now beginning to think that the more massive the star, the more massive the planet."

Ground-based telescopes around the world helped pinpoint the object, including observatories in France, Chile, Germany, Hawaii, Israel and Spain's Canary Islands.

The hunt for exoplanets has intensified over recent years, with astronomers usually finding such objects indirectly by observing their gravitational influence on parent stars. Another team showcased what might be the first direct image of an exoplanet around a sun-like star in September.


Discuss.
Edited by Undisputed_Seraphim, Oct 11 2008, 01:13 AM.
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Jin Peng Oct 11 2008, 12:57 PM Post #2
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hey dude,

Check this website: http://exoplanets.org/

This link should tell you all the exoplanets discovered! Cool har...

Jin Peng
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AnnE Oct 11 2008, 08:33 PM Post #3

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"It has puzzled us; we're not sure where to draw the boundary between planets and brown dwarfs,"

So they can't classify planets from brown dwarfs now, just as how they couldn't draw the line between planets and dwarf planets/asteroids huh?
bleh.

Next time Jupiter might get to be reclassified as a dwarf brown-dwarf by IAU, and it's gonna be awesome. Who doesn't want a solar system with more stars? Or maybe it just can't be called "solar system" anymore.
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Undisputed_Seraphim Oct 11 2008, 11:55 PM Post #4
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Bisolar System ftw.
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