T O P I C R E V I E W |
N_wEvil | http://www.msnbc.com/news/937147.asp#BODY This is BIG, if its accurate because the universe itself isnt meant to be much older... |
proxieme | HA! I knew about it the other day! *reaches for geek crown* |
juniperb | *sigh* But Prox, you can only be the ruling Geek Queen for the day Tomorrow someone else gets the chance. |
proxieme | *kicks dirt* Ohhhkaaay. |
juniperb | I was so busy at Prox that I forgot to read the article. I`m sure it`s been established that I`m not of the Scientific Geek Group , but I do have a question. Could this be one of the planets we`re looking for, like Vulcan, Horus ( Pan Horus) or Apollo? I know the new planet isn`t a sun as Apollo is, but I just wondered how close (with all the new discoveries) we are to discovering them, if we already haven`t. Did I even make sense? juniperb |
proxieme | Naw, this planet's very, very not of our solar system. |
proxieme | *Planet may be 13bn years old *Is 2.5 times the size of Jupiter *Orbits its two stars every century *Located in M4 globular cluster *In Scorpius; 5,600 light-years away |
juniperb | Proxy, I said the Crown is all yours today k, Wevil, second part of my question was "are we near to their discovery" science wise as well as astrological time wise? juniperb |
N_wEvil | its harder to see inside our own system paradoxically but the way you detect planets is by the wobble they cause in larger, more visible bodies. I think, short of some really weird orbits, thats its unlikely we'll be finding an extra two planets. Or maybe a brown dwarf behind a dust cloud if we're particularly unlucky!! Its a waiting and watching game really, better scopes help but not by much...so until someone comes out with gravitational mass sensors, we're stuck doing it the old-fashioned way |
juniperb | Thanks Wevil, so do you think the search for our second sun, Horus and Vulcan is futile? You`ve really got me wondering about this. I`m off to find out what a brown dwarf is.... juniperb |
N_wEvil | well the "second sun" or "nemesis" theory ties well in with periodical exctinctions on earth but it could be anything from a companion star to the Sol system passing through the denser part of the galactic plane to...uhh , weird stuff. a Brown Dwarf is a wannabe-star. Jupiter emits twice the amount of heat it gets from the sun, and what causes that is all the gas its made of squashing the core. When you get about 80 times larger you get fusion igniting in the core (4 Hydrogen atoms fuse to 1 helium atom with about a proton left to spare which then decays into energy) and the gas giant becomes a star. So brown dwarfs are either supermassive planets ("hot jupiters") or pathetic stars - kind of borderline candidates |
proxieme | Strange Events on Distant Pluto http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3052467.stm |
juniperb | Thanks N_w I found so much on brown dwarfs that I couldn`t soak it all in. A wannabe star is a better way of putting it than one I read "a stillborn" star. You said "Or maybe a brown dwarf behind a dust cloud if we're particularly unlucky!!" I couldn`t find anything in particular that would tell me why it would be unlucky to find one behind a dust cloud. I`m guessing with all the gas activity, it would trigger a dust field and smother earth? The second sun as a companion star sounds pleasanter that "wierd stuff". I have a personal reason why I want Vulcan discovered and rightfully given credit for ruling Virgo . Again thanks, this is rather fascinating info. juniperb |
juniperb | Wevil, is my assumption along the correct line of why it`d be unlucky? Yay, I`m still pondering this subject. juniperb |
N_wEvil | Assuming the sun has a fairly massive companion its' gravity could wreak havok on the orbits of many kuiper belt/oort cloud objects, winding up with earth and the inner solar system getting a very large shower of big comets/asteroids |