'Super-Earth' spotted in distant sky

[cthomer5000]

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'Super-Earth' spotted in distant sky 2 hours, 31 minutes ago PARIS (AFP) - European astronomers announced they had found a "super-Earth" orbiting a star some 50 light years away, a finding that could significantly boost the hunt for worlds beyond our Solar System. AFP/NASA/File Photo Junk Be Gone The government can't seem to stop spam, but you can. How? Keeping your inbox private will help. The planet was spotted orbiting a Sun-like star, mu Arae, which is located in a southern constellation called the Altar and which is bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, they said. The so-far unnamed world, which whizzes around mu Arae in just 9.5 days, is the smallest of the estimated 125 so-called extrasolar planets that have been detected so far. "This new planet appears to be the smallest yet discovered around a star other than the Sun. This makes mu Arae a very exciting planetary system," French astronomer Francois Bouchy was quoted in a statement issued by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). With few exceptions, the extrasolar planets spotted so far have approximated the size of Jupiter, the giant of the Solar System. But this latest find is far smaller, with a mass of only 14 times that of the Earth, which puts it in the same ballpark as Uranus for size. The big difference, though, is that Uranus is an uninhabitable hell, a gassy planet on the far frigid fringes of the Solar System, whereas the new planet appears to be a rocky planet, as the Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury are, and orbits in a much balmier region. It has a gassy atmosphere, amounting to about a tenth of its mass, although what this consists of is so far unknown. The object qualifies "as a 'super-Earth," the ESO said. Much about this enigmatic world remains to be uncovered, least of all whether it may be habitable. However, there is the tantalising question as to whether it lies within the "Goldilocks Zone" -- a distance from its star that is not too hot, not too cold, just right. In this zone, a planet would be close enough to the star to have liquid water -- yet not so close that its oceans would boil away -- and not so far that its oceans would freeze. That is one of the prime conditions for creating and sustaining life, according to a leading theoretical model. The discovery was made thanks to a highly accurate spectrograph, a velocity-measuring instrument, on the ESO's 3.6-metre (11.7-feet) telescope at La Silla, Chile. In a separate development, a team of American and Spanish astronomers, the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey (TrES), said they had found an extra-solar planet using a telescope with just a 10-centimeter (four-inch) diameter. Telescopes of this size can typically be bought in department stores, so this is a remarkable technical breakthrough in planet-hunting. The newfound planet is a Jupiter-sized gas giant orbiting a star located about 500 light years from Earth in the constellation of Lyra. This world circles its star every 3.03 days at a distance of only 6.4 million kms (four million miles), far closer and faster than Mercury is in our Solar System. To make the find, the astronomers used a network of small, inexpensive telescopes whose finds were then followed up and confirmed by the big lenses of the W.M. Keck Observatory on Hawaii. Most known extra-solar planets have been found by using the "Doppler method" which measures changes to the composition of a star's light that are caused by the planet's gravitational tug. In the US case, though, the astronomers looked for possible planets that were "transiting" their star -- that were in other words happened to be aligned between the star and Earth as they pursued their orbit. Such planets can then be detected indirectly because of the amount of light they block as they pass by. The two findings will be published in leading astrophysics journals. ----------------- ------------------- Ok. After reading that whole article, isn't the title a tad misleading? It sounds like there is little chance this thing is inhabitable (being that it's closer to it's sun than Venus is to ours), yet they're calling it a 'Super-Earth.' While it's an interesting story, the title seemed incredibly misleading to me.

[Franklinnoble]

Nice to see that we've finally located the planet Krypton.

[sachmo71]

I was hoping for Bizzaro World, but this is close enough.

Here is the space.com article for a geekier view.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...th_040825.html

[rkmsuf]

somewhere over there is someone reading the exact same story on a message board and going "cool".

[HornedFrog Purple]

Ok. After reading that whole article, isn't the title a tad misleading? It sounds like there is little chance this thing is inhabitable (being that it's closer to it's sun than Venus is to ours), yet they're calling it a 'Super-Earth.' While it's an interesting story, the title seemed incredibly misleading to me.

It falls in the 'Super-Earth' category because with its mass it has a possibility to hold an Earth-like atmosphere even though it is closer to its star. Of course we don't have all the information on the star it is orbiting around.

It is just a way of whittling down potential planets to investigate if we ever do.

[QuikSand]

I love the idea of putting in a photograph of our earth with this article.

All it needs is a caption: "Earth." Straight out of the Onion - reminds me of their use of a Sistine Chapel headshot labeled "above: God."

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

I love the idea of putting in a photograph of our earth with this article.

All it needs is a caption: "Earth."

I also chuckled at that while reading the article. It reminds me of that story someone posted with a file photo of a telephone planted right in there.

[Huckleberry]

Yeah, man. We think it's way too hot to live at 900 Kelvin. Right now there are some text simmers on that planet thinking "No way it's inhabitable. Who could live at only 270-310 Kelvin?"

Don't bother asking me about living where water is all vapor. I don't want to think. Maybe the atmospheric pressure there is really high and stuff.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by rkmsuf

somewhere over there is someone reading the exact same story on a message board and going "cool".

Does their article refer to us as "Inferior Earth?"

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by Radii

Does their article refer to us as "Inferior Earth?"

Maybe big is small and small is big over there.

[HornedFrog Purple]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry

Yeah, man. We think it's way too hot to live at 900 Kelvin. Right now there are some text simmers on that planet thinking "No way it's inhabitable. Who could live at only 270-310 Kelvin?"

Don't bother asking me about living where water is all vapor. I don't want to think. Maybe the atmospheric pressure there is really high and stuff.

You live in Texas. 900 Kelvin is nothing.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

I love the idea of putting in a photograph of our earth with this article."

Same reaction here - "Wow, that planet looks just like ours!"

[Huckleberry]

Originally Posted by HornedFrog Purple

You live in Texas. 900 Kelvin is nothing.

True. At 760 mmHg, 900 Kelvin would be a dry heat.

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry

True. At 760 mmHg, 900 Kelvin would be a dry heat.

Sounds about like the surface of a parking lot in Yuma, Arizona.

[VPI97]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

The big difference, though, is that Uranus is an uninhabitable hell, a gassy planet...

lol


(I have an 8 year old daughter, so please excuse my sense of humor)

[Raven Hawk]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

Nothing like using fairy-tale terminology to describe science. Perhaps we'll start measuring wind velocity in BBWP's (Big Bad Wolf Puffs).

[The_herd]

Originally Posted by VPI97

lol


(I have an 8 year old daughter, so please excuse my sense of humor)

But this latest find is far smaller, with a mass of only 14 times that of the Earth, which puts it in the same ballpark as Uranus for size.

I laughed too. I'm ashamed.

[KWhit]

Did you hear that scientists are thinking about renaming the planet Uranus?

[KWhit]

Originally Posted by KWhit

Did you hear that scientists are thinking about renaming the planet Uranus?

They're going to name it Urectum.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Same reaction here - "Wow, that planet looks just like ours!"

Me, too. I said the exact same thing. I even enlarged the photo, saw the Arabian Peninsula, and thought, "That thing there even looks like Arabia..."

Then it dawned on me.

Sheesh. Helpful photo for all those readers that forgot what planet they are standing on.

[Anthony]

lol, me too. i looked at it for a sec before i read the article and quickly thought "indeed, it is a super-earth".

[clintl]

Originally Posted by Raven Hawk

Perhaps we'll start measuring wind velocity in BBWP's (Big Bad Wolf Puffs).

Let's hope so. It would make the weather forecasts on the nightly news a lot more fun.

[JeffNights]

On the serious side, it makes me wish that radio waves could travel faster than the speed of light. That way, just send some signals to the friggin' thing, and hey maybe the thing responds.

and yes, I laughed at "Uranus" too.