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Astronomers in Hawaii Discover Giant Planet
#1
Wow! Mahalo, Mr. Tom and your fellow astronomers. Hawai'i makes international (and local) news again, with this discovery. Well done!

JMO.


(*Snipped - More at link/incl. pictures)

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/32266...ant-planet

MAUNA KEA, HAWAII (HawaiiNewsNow) -
Astronomers atop the Big Island of Hawaii announced a major discovery on Monday: a giant planet.

The team of scientists found the newborn planet, called K2-33b, about 430 light years away and revolving around a different star from our sun.

Researchers say the planet is bigger than Neptune and is the youngest fully-formed planet ever discovered outside our solar system.

It is estimated to be five to ten million years old.





ETA: A couple of good articles below (*Snipped - More at link/BBM)


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/spea...come-from/

It's rare to discover a newborn planet. It's even rarer to discover one that lives so close to its sun it can race all the way around it in just five days.

But two newfound exoplanets, reported Monday in the journal Nature, do just that. Not only are they some of the youngest, strangest planets astronomers have discovered; scientists say their discovery could help demystify the process of planet formation.

And yet astronomers at the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope on Hawaii's Mauna Kea noticed that the star showed a noticeable "wobble" every 4.9 days — a telltale sign that something very large was orbiting around the star and tugging it ever so slightly with its gravity. Further study revealed what scientists call a "hot Jupiter." These are large, Jupiter-sized planets that are very close to their star and have incredibly high surface temperatures.



This one is from Space.com:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/rare-newborn-planet-may-be-the-youngest-ever-detected/ar-AAhlXcs?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=U220DHP
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#2
Thanks for that, Opihikao. Finding a planet this young is extraordinary. In astronomical terms, 5 to 10 million years is the blink of an eye, it's almost like being present for a birth!

In other recent news, UKIRT helped discover three earth-like planets orbiting a star not too far away:

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/promising-wo...dwarf-star

We'll be doing more observations like this at the end of July, so more earth-like planets might be found soon.
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#3
Find some more alien superstructures!
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#4
Please, let's not go there... [Wink]

ETA: http://goo.gl/CbM4PA

A Daily Mail article about alien megastructures.
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#5
Ah, the Daily Mail. Can't you take a peek when nobody else is using the thing?
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#6
quote:
Originally posted by PaulW

Ah, the Daily Mail. Can't you take a peek when nobody else is using the thing?

(BBM) LMAO! Too funny, Mr. PaulW.

The "Outer Limits" (circa 1963)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCcdr4O-3gE

[Smile] (Still giggling, Mr. PaulW...lol) Have a lovely day, all!


JMO.



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#7
quote:
Originally posted by TomK

Thanks for that, Opihikao. Finding a planet this young is extraordinary. In astronomical terms, 5 to 10 million years is the blink of an eye, it's almost like being present for a birth!

In other recent news, UKIRT helped discover three earth-like planets orbiting a star not too far away:

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/promising-wo...dwarf-star

We'll be doing more observations like this at the end of July, so more earth-like planets might be found soon.


Tom, this is really cool [Smile]

Pam in CA
Pam in CA
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#8
Actually, things just changed. Now we're going to try this Thursday night.
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#9
quote:
Originally posted by TomK

Please, let's not go there... [Wink]

ETA: http://goo.gl/CbM4PA

A Daily Mail article about alien megastructures.


Watch for the supernova, in which case they can be classified as dum-dum aliens. ;-)
***Still can't figure out how to spell 'car' correctly***
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#10
Exciting times! It wasn't that long ago that there was no proof of planets outside of this solar system.
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