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#1 2004-05-28 06:55:18
Re: New Young Planet Found
http://www.click2houston.com/technology … etail.html
Scientists Believe They Found New Baby Planet
"Run for it? Running's not a plan! Running's what you do, once a plan fails!" -Earl Bassett
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#2 2004-05-28 07:15:15
- Palomar
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- From: USA
- Registered: 2002-05-30
- Posts: 9,734
Re: New Young Planet Found
http://www.click2houston.com/technology … etail.html
Scientists Believe They Found New Baby Planet
*Hi REB. Cool article. Only 420 light years away. 
Spitzer is doing marvelous things.
A baby planet ::sigh:: How sweet.
Its star is very young, too (only a million years old...just a tot itself, by cosmic standards).
Caught my attention especially: "...the planetary construction zones around infant stars have considerable ice that could produce future oceans."
--Cindy
::EDIT:: "Watson also reported that for the first time, Spitzer has shown without ambiguity all the icy organic materials in the planet-forming disks surrounding infant stars, or those that are only hundreds of thousands of years old. He called these the building blocks of what might end up as a solar system like our own.
As for the proliferation of developing stars, Spitzer revealed more than 300 star formations in one region in the constellation Centaurus, 13,700 light-years away."
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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#3 2004-05-28 08:16:24
Re: New Young Planet Found
What we need is a gravity lens scope using the Sun’s, or Jupiter’s, gravity well.
I read years ago that such a scope could show us contents on any Earth-like planets orbiting nearby stars. I would love to have a look at the Alpha Centauri System. With two Sun-like stars that can support planets out to 2 AU’s, it is a good place to look for Earth-Like planets.
"Run for it? Running's not a plan! Running's what you do, once a plan fails!" -Earl Bassett
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#4 2004-05-28 08:28:07
- ~Eternal~
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- Registered: 2003-09-25
- Posts: 211
Re: New Young Planet Found
What we need is a gravity lens scope using the Sun?s, or Jupiter?s, gravity well.
I read years ago that such a scope could show us contents on any Earth-like planets orbiting nearby stars. I would love to have a look at the Alpha Centauri System. With two Sun-like stars that can support planets out to 2 AU?s, it is a good place to look for Earth-Like planets.
Wait 60 years and why don't we just go visit it?
I'll by the tickets you bring the Hostee's 
.
The MiniTruth passed its first act #001, comname: PATRIOT ACT on October 26, 2001.
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#5 2004-05-28 08:38:36
- Palomar
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- From: USA
- Registered: 2002-05-30
- Posts: 9,734
Re: New Young Planet Found
What we need is a gravity lens scope using the Sun’s, or Jupiter’s, gravity well.
I read years ago that such a scope could show us contents on any Earth-like planets orbiting nearby stars.
*Yep, good idea.
Hubble recently imaged the oldest galaxies yet seen -- nearest yet to the estimated time of the Big Bang -- via gravitational lensing (IIRC, utilizing the gravity of a much closer [and rather dense] group of galaxies).
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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#6 2004-05-28 13:44:08
- Palomar
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- Registered: 2002-05-30
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Re: New Young Planet Found
I would love to have a look at the Alpha Centauri System. With two Sun-like stars that can support planets out to 2 AU’s, it is a good place to look for Earth-Like planets.
*This is one of the best articles (w/illustrations) I've seen of the a-Centauri system.
They speculate whether Proxima [C] is part of the system or if it may eventually move away from A & B; it's currently 13,000 AU away from the other two.
What if it is actually being drawn -closer to- A & B? I suppose they're working on ascertaining that?
A & B's closest approach to each other 11 AU's; 2 AU limit for stable planetary orbits; orbit each other every 80 years...hmmmmm. That'd be a bit like riding on a cosmic version of the local County Fair's "Scrambler." :laugh:
Cool to speculate on. Imagine living in a system like that (would take it for granted, I know...but fun to travel to via imagination). It'd be great to see a video animation.
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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#7 2004-05-29 11:28:37
- Euler
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- From: Corvallis, OR
- Registered: 2003-02-06
- Posts: 922
Re: New Young Planet Found
What we need is a gravity lens scope using the Sun’s, or Jupiter’s, gravity well.
I don't know about Jupiter, but the sun's focal point is at about 450 AU. Just getting the telescope there would be a real challenge with current technology, and you would only be able to aim it at things that are directly opposite the sun from it.
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#8 2004-06-04 09:16:56
Re: New Young Planet Found
Several such scopes, at the 450 AU point, that slowly orbit, might work. It would be a slow process to change targets, but if we had several out there looking at the closer stars, that might work.
"Run for it? Running's not a plan! Running's what you do, once a plan fails!" -Earl Bassett
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