New Large Rocky Planet Found 119
An anonymous reader writes "Discovery News is reporting the discovery of a super-sized rocky planet orbiting a red-dwarf. The star is located about 9000 ly from the sun. The planet consists of rock and ice and orbits at around the distance of asteroid belt. The planet could not grow to Jupiter size because the star is small and the system ran out of gas. The planet is about 13 earth masses and was discovered using the microlensing technique. Since most of the stars in the Milky Way are smaller than the sun, we should expect more of similar findings."
Bad Joke (Score:4, Funny)
Sorry, had to do that.
Re:Bad Joke (Score:3, Funny)
No, you didn't.
Re:Bad Joke (Score:2)
Re:Bad Joke (Score:2)
Re:Bad Joke (Score:2)
Re:Bad Joke (Score:1)
Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:2, Insightful)
....intelligent life like ourselves....
I hardly think we rate as intelligent. No, we're about as smart as the bacteria that occupies a petridish until we've released so much toxin we make it uninhabitable for ourselves long before the available food runs out. Frankly, we're about the level of pond-scum in the Grand Scheme.
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:2)
hasn't this bit already been done?
Put on your "bucket helmet" (think Sponge Bob movie) and follow...
A giant educationally-advanced species of bacteria decides to rule the "Earth", etc... even a "bacteria" knows where this joke goes... I'm just not sure that I do.
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:1)
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:3, Insightful)
If this "pond scum" for some reason doesn't spread itself to the wind to cover every nook and cranny within its little sphere of light, it is only because it doesn't want to or someone else did it first.
I know kn
Grand evolution?!!?! (Score:2)
Re:Grand evolution?!!?! (Score:2)
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:2)
If we're a "next step", who's doing the walking, and are they trying to get somewhere in particular? Evolution happens, it's not something people or species do. It's the cumulative effect of the environment on populations over generations. Humanity is great and all, but let's not pretend we're anything other than a happy happenstance.
As soon as we start consciously engineering our own offspring towards some goal other than pure survival, it's no longer "evolution" in the classical s
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:1)
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:1)
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:2)
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:2)
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:1)
AFAIK, none of the techniques we have right now can detect planets much smaller than the one they just found....
Actually, according to the article (last paragraph):
So, this technique could find ~Earth-mass planets, but only if they're aligned
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:2)
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:5, Funny)
One of these things is not like the other.
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:1)
Which one is it?
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:3, Funny)
I'm not sure I would. Something tells me we'll have to be really, *really* nice to them.
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:2)
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:3, Interesting)
Stronger gravity makes things fall faster. This means that the beings living there will need faster reflexes to be able to walk, since they have less time to react. 13 times Earths gravity means that the beings will simply sidestep the bullet and watch as it sails past them in virtual slow motion. Assuming that they don't simply stand there and let it pounce of them, since their tissues will also need a much higher tensile strength to resist their local gra
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:1)
If its on theirs, then their muscles mean shit as far as reflexes and speed. If your talking about bringing one of them to earth, then, this is a valid discussion.
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:1)
In other words..
John Glenn != Chuck Norris
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:1)
No I'd say stronger gravity just makes the max
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:2)
True, but Moon also has a lower average density than Earth. That is significant, since it means that the surface is farther from the center than you'd think from mass alone, leading to lower surface gravity. The lower density of Moon is because, according to the current theories, Moon was formed from material ejected from Earths crust, a
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:2)
We have no way of knowing the density of this planet, only its mass - in fact, if you read the paper on arxiv, they're not even sure whether it's a giant terrestrial world (a 'failed Jupiter') or a Neptune-like small gas giant, but they're betting on the rocky option since there's likely to be a shortage of gas in the solar system of a red dwarf.
However. We have here a planet of 13 Earth masses. Ass
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:3, Funny)
I'm not sure I would. Something tells me we'll have to be really, *really* nice to them.
I have a mental image here of guys with ridiculous musculature, big hair, monkey tails, various impressive ki-based techniques, and a very bad attitude. I for one am hoping like hell for the sake of the rest of the galaxy that the place gets, er... hit by a comet, yeah, a comet...
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:2)
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:2)
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:2)
We've conducted an extensive search of the world and come up with nothing; if there is such a person, he must live way out in the woods somewhere. Unfortunate, because without training there's no way he'd be able to take on professional alien warriors.
We do have a prospect we're quite hopeful of; a farmboy from the US corn belt, apparently of extraterrestrial origin, whose physiology has recently displayed some interesting rea
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:2)
Somewhere out in space
Because there's Bugger-all here Earth"
~Python et al
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:2)
Preview, why musy you taunt me so?
(also.. To Slashdot adminbot: Fuck off, "cowboy" I should be able to repost as soon as I realize my mistake, not after some arbitrary slashdot period.)
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:1)
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:1)
I still search `intelligent life` on earth.
But, btw it is not sure that intelligent life can *only* grow up under
conditions that are similar to those on earth. It's not even sure that
life (intelligent or not) needs to be based on carbon and water.
I would not risk searching intelligent life *only* on earth like planets.
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:3, Interesting)
A planet that big is likely to have many large moons, much like the gas giant planets in our own solar system. The same goes for gas giants found around other stars.
The nice thing about orbiting a large planet is that you get energy from tidal stress, which can help replace energy you would otherwise get from a star.
The best proof for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: (Score:2, Insightful)
(Sorry. I couldn't resist)
Splut.
Surface Gravity != Mass (Score:1)
Just because the mass is 13 times that of the earth doesn't mean the surface gravity is. A more massive body is usually also a bigger body in terms of volume, meaning the surface is further out from the center of gravity. And the pull gravity falls of as the *square* of distance, so it's a very significant effect.
Assuming this body has about the same density as Earth (Yes, the material would be under greater pressure and therefore maybe more dense, but ho
Correction (Score:1)
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:1)
Re:Ok Where are the E.T.s (Score:3, Informative)
Unfortunately, no. Microlensing is a technique that allows us to find smaller planets than was previously possible. As planets go, the Earth is big on the rocky scale, but small compared to, say, Jupiter. It's no accident that extrasolar planets so far discovered are measured in terms of their size compared to Jupiter.
To discover Earth-sized planets required a space-base
I don't think that's true at all. (Score:1)
Planet Rocky (Score:1)
Rocky planet? (Score:1)
Yoooooooooooo... Adriannnnneeeee
Re:Rocky planet? (Score:1)
I have seen a lot of this on Slashdot, where the same thought comes to different people, whom I suppose have very little proximity to each other, yet both post the same thought within seconds of each other.
Often, one gets modded "redundant", even as the time stamps indicate there was no way the person posting redundantly could have possibly known of the other entry.
Does anyone have any speculation o
Re:Rocky planet? (Score:1)
Re:Rocky planet? (Score:2)
I think that this dissertation on the The Law of Large Numbers [skepdic.com] is perhaps the best answer to your question. I know that when I posted that reply, it was late in the evening, I'd just finished paying bills, and wanted one more look at Slashdot before I went to bed. I can't say there was any clairvoyance involved -- I noted the titl
Super-sized? (Score:3, Funny)
I really hate the way Discovery channel always takes information and adjusts it purely for their largest target audience - extremely overweight, couch potatoes who dislike going for more than 5 minutes without seeing the words "super-size".
Re:Super-sized? (Score:2)
In this case, it means it's a rocky (i.e., Earth-like) planet with about 13 times the mass of Earth.
The article says so. (You don't expect to see all the information in the headline, do you?
Re:Super-sized? (Score:1, Troll)
But then why should I bother learning about science when Discovery Channel is showing another brain-dead documentory rephrasing the same 3 misleading facts 500 times for an hour, with a 3D animation repeated every 30 secounds to prevent viewers from daring to use even a small amount of imagniation.
Re:Super-sized? (Score:2)
When can we travel there? (Score:1, Insightful)
That's what I'd like to see...or at least the beginning of real space travel across light years in minutes or hours.
Re:When can we travel there? (Score:3, Insightful)
Approximately 5 minutes later, we will find the cure for whatever I died from.
Re: "exactly 5 minutes after I die" (Score:1)
Re:When can we travel there? (Score:2)
Re:When can we travel there? (Score:2)
When you get of your lazy ass and figure out a way to do so.
Wrong! Gravity dependent on mass and density (Score:5, Insightful)
The planet might be 13 times the mass but if the density is the same as Earth then g is only 2.35 times that of Earth (cube root of 13).
ZombieEngineer
Re:Wrong! Gravity dependent on mass and density (Score:1)
Re:Wrong! Gravity dependent on mass and density (Score:2)
Probably, but... (Score:1)
Re:Wrong! Gravity dependent on mass and density (Score:2)
That would be true if the radius were the same. It's probably, using your own figures, about 2.35 times the radius of the Earth. I'll let somebody else figure out the probable surface g.
Re:Wrong! Gravity dependent on mass and density (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Wrong! Gravity dependent on mass and density (Score:2)
Re:Wrong! Gravity dependent on mass and density (Score:2)
Re:That's no planet... (Score:1)
Wow. Just wow. Obi-Wan's probably turning in his grave (... or maybe not. wafting around in the force or whatever) over that one.
"It's the Death Star." Honestly. [wikipedia.org]
Fill-er-up! (Score:2, Funny)
No problem. They'll just coast another few light years, and it turns out there's a Speedway just past the next pulsar. Add a couple chili dogs from the snack bar, and there'll be enough gas in that system for another 5 million years.
ly? (Score:2, Funny)
Wow! First time I've ever seen light years abbreviated (or formed to an acronym) as ly! Here's one of my favorites: WTF?
Re:ly? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:ly? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:ly? (Score:5, Funny)
I thought that was an abbreviation for 'politicians'. As in 'Tony Blair and George Bush are lyrs.'
Re:ly? (Score:1)
Intelligent Life... (Score:1)
Impossible! (Score:1)
If it's that far away, we obviously can't see it yet. The universe was created in 4004BC. [wikipedia.org].
More planet stories, plus a news release (Score:4, Interesting)
Some 170 extrasolar planets have been discovered in the last decade, so there's already been a lot of news coverage. But it's easy to forget that before a decade ago, scientists had no real evidence of what other solar systems are like. This planet is unusual in that it's terrestrial, and its solar system doesn't seem to have any giant gas planets like Jupiter. So the find expands our ideas about what kinds of solar systems are out there, and it also suggests that we're getting closer to our goal of finding other Earth-mass planets.
There's more information in the Ohio State news release [osu.edu], and the one written by my colleagues at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics [harvard.edu]. There are also lots of other news stories out there right now, most notably by New Scientist [newscientistspace.com], National Geographic [nationalgeographic.com], and Space.com [space.com].
Pam Gorder
catalog of exoplanets (Score:2, Informative)
www.exoplanets.org [exoplanets.org]
(it's not updated as frequently as news sites, but it IS maintained by astronomers, not someone making a quick buck...)
Re:ya and so.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Come on, everyone knows science is incremental. 99% of progress is unremarkable in and of itself, but quite often the process involved allows greater leaps to occur. For instance, the microlensing they are using in these systems are a good advance in optics -- now what other uses can we think of? And that doesn't even count what we can't even predict.
Your attitude is just demonstrative of what is wrong with people today, they cannot think past the immediate, and certainly don't underst
Re:ya and so.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Hey, hey, hey, just because somebody has a critical opinion on something dose not make them flamebait!
Come on, everyone knows science is incremental. 99% of progress is unremarkable in and of itself, but quite often the process involved allows greater leaps to occur. For instance, the microlensing they are using in these systems are a good advance in optics -- now what other uses can we think of? And that doesn't even count what we can't even predict.
I would agree with you here but
Re:ya and so.... (Score:4, Insightful)
The previous poster was right -- SCIENCE IS INCREMENTAL. We can't shrug off discoveries like these simply because they don't "excite".
Re:ya and so.... (Score:1)
You and the AC are right science is incremental, but very step dose not need to be touted as a major breakthrough as been the norm as of late.
We don't need to hear about every stride the runner takes in the race, just the points of interest.
Re:ya and so.... (Score:1)
Re:ya and so.... (Score:1)
Exactly. I think finding a planet (relatively) close to earth size in another system is nice...but with the fanfare every tidbit seems to get, nothing seems major anymore. Seems really prevalent in medical science, where study after study that 'may' 'hint' 'possible connection' gets a banner.
I used to pursue every newsflash with hopes of learning we made some breakthrough, but i'm so underwhelmed it doesn't
Re:ya and so.... (Score:3, Funny)
Honestly what impact will this find have on the scientific community?
No, it's flamebait because you're flaming. "Boring people to death?" Doubtful, considering how much news an event like this generates. There are plenty of people on Slashdot alone talking about this, never mind the thousands of others who don't visit Slashdot.
Having a difference in opinion, even a criti
Re:ya and so.... (Score:4, Funny)
Sure, to YOU it's just a dupe of celestial proportions.
But some of us are FROM Altair Centauri, and this is the first news item we've had in 9000 years, you insensitive clod.
Re:ya and so.... (Score:2)
No, this is just an indicator that you're a moron.
Absolutely true... (Score:2)
Re:Absolutely true... (Score:3, Insightful)
Welcome the "common man"
So you don't understand the significance of this observation because?
It is the endless stories like this...
Perhaps you could reference these "endless stories Seriously, it sounds pretty cool to me. I don't see in any way, shape, or form how this is a "dupe", if that was your conjecture. Or perhaps by "endless" you mean any scientific study that does not result in a star-trek utopia?
Re:ya and so.... (Score:4, Insightful)
They found a new planet, 13 times the mass of Earth, and you're bored?
Sheesh!
Re:ya and so.... (Score:4, Funny)
dude. You can't explain the relevance of the study when your audience does not understand the word "relevance"