Exoplanets

[Drone]

Hah and it happens just when I was thinking of wimps, dark matter, neutrinos and Neptune! Ok I digress ...

Kepler-19b, which orbits the Sun-like star Kepler-19 in the constellation Lyra, has been found to have an 'invisible' world tugging on it.

Yeah that's it. They called it Kepler-19c. They found it by gravitational influence it has on Kepler-19b. They know it exists but not much else. They don't even know its brightness and I don't even talk about its mass and composition. We just can't see it. I wonder how it looks like.

Because Kepler-19b's transits around its star alternatively speed up and slow down by up to five minutes rather than running like clockwork, scientists determined that another planetary body must be tugging on it.

That reminds me of Neptune. People didn't know about Neptune (back in the day), they predicted its existence by irregularities in the orbit of neighboring Uranus. Very interesting method. I've read about this few days ago.


http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=34558

 

[Drone]

Well deserved bump

Another unseen planet has been revealed:

Using Kepler Telescope transit data of planet “b”, scientists predicted that a second planet “c” about the mass of Saturn orbits the distant star KOI-872. (KOI stands for Kepler Objects of Interest)

Amazing discovery. Just like it happened before with Kepler-19c.

Scientists analyzed Kepler Telescope data and identified KOI-872 as a stellar system where measured transits of a planet orbiting the star show large time variations (the shifting bumps in the data) indicative of a hidden companion. Researchers determined that the observed variations can be best explained by an unseen planet about the mass of Saturn orbiting the host star every 57 days.

The spacing and timing are crucial:

A hidden planet, for example, can distort the sequence of transits if it gravitationally pulls on the transiting planet and delays some transits relative to others.

Dr. David Nesvorny who led this research explains:

"It quickly became apparent to us that a large hidden object must be pulling on the transiting planet. To put this in context, if a bullet train arrives in a station two hours late, there must be a very good reason for that. The trick was to find what it is.

Lol anyone remember what Yoda said? Go to the center of gravity's pull and find your planet, you will, Hmmm. Ok I digress ...

The team's claim will be put to the test by Kepler's new observations, which will track dozens of new transits of KOI-872, comparing their timing to published predictions.

I wish them luck

http://phys.org/news/2012-05-reveal-unseen-planet-gravity.html

 

[micropage7]

how could they say they find it when the planet is invisible?
planet is an object, so it should be seen, has size
but if it aint seen, it could be anything, dark energy, big meteorit or UFO spaceship in cloak mode maybe
they even aint see it at all
but it still interesting

 

[W1zzard]

invisible in this context means it doesnt pass in front of its star, so we can't see the star dim, so we can't see the planet.

imagine a line from us to the star, we keep looking at the star to see its brightness change, if the "invisible" planet's orbit never takes it between us and the star we will never see it

 

[Aquinus]

http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx81/Johnon/Meme collection/GTFO.png

You can't see the wireless signal that goes into your laptop, therefore does that mean your wireless connection doesn't exist? Please try again.

 

[Drone]

it could be anything, dark energy, big meteorit or UFO spaceship

If someone knocks on your door and runs away what would you think of? Was it some alien, a bear, Elvis, a lolcat or maybe it was just some prankish kid?

In many cases knowledge/experience and logics become more important than evidence.



\/ Technically bears can knock.

 

[W1zzard]

Was it some alien, a bear, Elvis, a lolcat

alien doesn't know the custom of knocking, the bear can't knock with his paws, elvis is dead or you would hear the people sing kumbaya outside, the lolcat can't escape teh internetz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KayBys8gaJY (The burden of proof)

 

[entropy13]

W1zz is probably from that planet and is working hard to keep it secret and invisible to us Earthlings.

 

[D007]

If someone knocks on your door and runs away what would you think of? Was it some alien, a bear, Elvis, a lolcat or maybe it was just some prankish kid?

In many cases knowledge/experience and logics become more important than evidence.



\/ Technically bears can knock.

Immediately I'd say it was the lolcat.. For sure..
But good stuff.. Maybe one day we'll find a planet, we actually go to..lol

 

[Completely Bonkers]

it could be anything, dark energy, big meteorit or UFO spaceship in cloak mode maybe or a large shipment of 670's causing space-time curve

^^ I think he's on to something...

 

[scoutingwraith]

A very I interesting find.....wonder if it's a gas planet or a rocky type one.

 

[AlienIsGOD]

alien doesn't know the custom of knocking

Excuse me good sir!! I always knock

 

[Soylent Joe]

inb4 Nibiru

 

[m1dg3t]

Cool! As observing/detecting tech improves/matures we will definately find more & more out "there"

I'm curious as to the composistion?

 

[Vulpesveritas]

Cool. I wonder if it's a rocky planet...

 

[PopcornMachine]

Maybe planet b is just going through a patch of space where time slows down.

 

[Drone]

Newfound exoplanet may turn to dust

Another object found:

Researchers at MIT, NASA and elsewhere have detected a possible planet, some 1,500 light years away, that appears to be evaporating under the blistering heat of its parent star dubbed KIC 12557548. The scientists infer that a long tail of debris - much like the tail of a comet - is following the planet, and that this tail may tell the story of the planet's disintegration. According to the team's calculations, the tiny exoplanet, not much larger than Mercury, will completely disintegrate within 100 million years.

But they think it is a planet, not a comet.

The team found that the dusty planet circles its parent star every 15 hours - one of the shortest planet orbits ever observed. Such a short orbit must be very tight and implies that the planet must be heated by its orange-hot parent star to a temperature of about 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit. Researchers hypothesize that rocky material at the surface of the planet melts and evaporates at such high temperatures, forming a wind that carries both gas and dust into space. Dense clouds of the dust trail the planet as it speeds around its star.

That's a long and most painful way to die ...

http://phys.org/news/2012-05-newfound-exoplanet.html

 

[Morgoth]

so there are more then 9 realms? what sorcery is going on here?

 

[Drone]

A research team led by astronomers at the University of Washington and Harvard University has discovered a bigger version of Earth locked in an orbital tug-of-war with a much larger, Neptune-sized planet as they orbit very close to each other around the same star about 1,200 light years from Earth.

Yup another two new planets: Kepler-36b and Kepler-36c. They are orbiting a star in the Cygnus constellation referred to as Kepler-36a.

The planets occupy nearly the same orbital plane and on their closest approach come within about 1.2 million miles of each other – just five times the Earth-moon distance and about 20 times closer to one another than any two planets in our solar system. But the timing of their orbits means they'll never collide. These are the closest two planets to one another that have ever been found. The bigger planet is pushing the smaller planet around more, so the smaller planet is harder to find.

It's always great to know about the new worlds.

Planet b is a rocky planet like Earth, though 4.5 times more massive and with a radius 1.5 times greater. Kepler-36c, which could be either gaseous like Jupiter or watery, is 8.1 times more massive than Earth and has a radius 3.7 times greater.

They used photometer (to measure light from distant celestial objects) and applied an algorithm called quasi-periodic pulse detection.

The data revealed a slight dimming of light coming from Kepler-36a every 16 days, the length of time it takes the larger Kepler-36c to circle its star. Kepler-36b circles the star seven times for each six orbits of 36c, but it was not discovered initially because of its small size and the gravitational jostling by its orbital companion. But when the algorithm was applied to the data, the signal was unmistakable.

Researchers said that the transit time pattern for the large planet and the transit time pattern for the smaller planet are mirror images of one another. Interesting ....

Ok now about composition and other properties:

They believe the smaller planet is 30% iron, less than 1% atmospheric hydrogen and helium and probably no more than 15% water. The larger planet, on the other hand, likely has a rocky core surrounded by a substantial amount of atmospheric hydrogen and helium. The planets' densities differ by a factor of eight but their orbits differ by only 10%.

The team also calculated specific information for the star itself, determining that Kepler-36a is about the same mass as the sun but is just 25% as dense. It also is slightly hotter and has slightly less metal content. The researchers concluded that the star is a few billion years older than the sun and no longer burns hydrogen at its core, so has entered a sub-giant phase in which its radius is 60% greater than the sun's.

http://phys.org/news/2012-06-astronomers-spy-planets-tight-quarters.html

 

[D007]

Ty scientist for being smart, so I don't have to be..

 

[Drone]

For everyone who still cares:

New data suggest the confirmation of the exoplanet Gliese 581g and the best candidate so far of a potential habitable exoplanet. The nearby star Gliese 581 is well known for having four planets with the outermost planet, Gliese 581d, already suspected habitable. This will be the first time evidence for any two potential habitable exoplanets orbiting the same star. Gliese 581g will be included, together with Gliese 667Cc, Kepler-22b, HD85512, and Gliese 581d, in the Habitable Exoplanets Catalog of the PHL @ UPR Arecibo as the best five objects of interest for Earth-like exoplanets.

This is really exciting. This newfound exoplanet Gliese 581g is the most Earth-like planet ever known.

Based on the new data Gliese 581g probably has a radius not larger than 1.5 times Earth radii. It receives about the same light flux as Earth does from the Sun due to its closer orbital position around a dim red dwarf star. These factors combine to make Gliese 581g the most Earth-like planet known with an Earth Similarity Index, a measure of Earth-likeness from zero to one, of 0.92 and higher than the previously top candidate Gliese 667Cc, discovered last year.

Amazing

http://phys.org/news/2012-07-potential-habitable-exoplanets.html

 

[Inceptor]

That's interesting.
BUT, Gliese 581 is a red dwarf so the system is probably bathed in relatively high amounts of ionizing radiation. Red dwarf stars tend to be flare stars. If that is the case then it's probably not a very friendly place for biological life, as we know it.

 

[ViperXTR]

does it have a moon? if i remember correctly without a stabilizing moon its tidal behavior can be quite cataclysmic and its axial range will be larger creatign diverse climates

 

[Inceptor]

All the planets orbiting Gliese 581 are so close to the star, because of its low mass, that they may all be tidally locked, or nearly so. I think that if any of them have moons, those moons aren't going to have more influence than the parent star.

 

[gopal]

Well the kelper reminds me the nvidia kelper series is the planet is owned by nvidia?