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New Transiting Extrasolar Planet
Shooter6947 writes "A new transiting extrasolar planet has been announced -- the only other known object that passes between its star and the Earth each orbit, a situation known as a transit, is HD209458b. The new planet, OGLE-TR-56b, is 0.9 times the mass of our own Jupiter and 1.3 times Jupiter's radius. It is the closest-in extrasolar planet yet found, with its year being only 1.2 days! Read about it from a cnn.com article or from the original scientific paper."
29-hour day? Must be very very close to its star. Ah, I see, 1/50 of Earth's orbit. Hmm, 3000 degree atmosphere.
Hold off on the colony ships.
However good the odds are that there are Earth-like planets in the galaxy, what are the odds that any are within reach of any human exploration that will ever take place? It's a big place, and barring "warp drive" the prospects of anything more than observation seem dim.
Amazing what astronomers can do with impossibly minute signals over unimaginably great distances, esp. the inferences of size and density. I wonder what alien astonomers looking at our solar system are thinking? (Something like: "No chance intelligent life could exist there.")
The new planet, OGLE-TR-56b, is 0.9 times the mass of our own Jupiter and 1.3 times Jupiter's radius.
My favorite heavenly body is the girl who lives across the street. I've named her OGLE-T&A-36DD. The best thing is that I don't even need a telescope to see her: binoculars work fine for seeing into her bedroom!
GMD
watch this