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Earth-Sized Planets Confirmed -- But They're Dead

Posted by timothy on from the venn-diagrams dept.

tizo writes "Robert Britt wrote an interesting article about the discovery of three Earth-sized planets confirmed after ten years of controversy. They orbit a pulsar, a neutron stars spinning very rapidly. Researchers pinned down the masses by watching how the planets affect pulses of energy coming from the star. All other known planets around other stars are much bigger (like Jupiter) and were found using other techniques (Doppler effect of main star moving in a close circle because of influence of the planet or direct transit over line of sight)."

5 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. how to find... by Ransak · · Score: 5, Informative


    extrasolar planets.

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    "Powers. I have them."
  2. Re:Of course they are dead... reference explained by renehollan · · Score: 2, Informative
    Lexx (4th season, IIRC)

    Stan and gang get to Earth and Kai notes that the planet is about do shrink to the size of a pea because of attempts by scientists to discover the size of the Higgs boson.

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    You could've hired me.
  3. Ten years of controversy? by pq · · Score: 4, Informative
    I don't know about "ten years of controversy" - these things have been around since 1992 and pretty widely accepted. Here's the original Nature abstract (1992) and here's Alex W's ADS entry - there's a pretty steady stream of PSR B1257+12 papers, and not much in the way of controversy.

    But yes, it is extraordinarily neat!

    --
    "I will take the Ring," he said, "though I do not know the way."
  4. Re:keep denying it... by Alsee · · Score: 2, Informative

    those arguments have gone from "extrasolar planets can't exist" to "earth-sized planets can't exist" - and now, they'll likely go to "earth-sized planets in the habitable zone can't exist"

    It sounds a lot like the ever-shrinking "god of the gaps" arguments.

    -

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    - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  5. Re:Won't be able to check it out in the near futur by confused+one · · Score: 2, Informative
    Well Duh. Did you feel the shockwave from any supernova lately. No, I don't think so.

    Let's see, if memory serves me right... the last time a supernova happened near us.... Hmmm, OH YEAH, it caused our solar system to coalesce from the cloud of gas left over from the one before that.

    Sorry, Tired. Becoming Sarcastic. Can't stop self. Help...