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Strange Mini Solar System Found

Posted by timothy on from the that's-where-my-relatives-came-from dept.

starexplorer writes "In 1990, Penn State's Alex Wolszczan found the first exoplanets. But he never got much credit from mainstream researchers, because his planets (3 of them, roughly Earth-sized) orbit pulsars and hold no chance for harboring life. Now he's found a 4th object on the outskirts of the system, SPACE.com is reporting. Call it a planet, call it an asteroid, Wolszczan says, but call the setup a dark, eerie twin of the inner half of our solar system. Also in the same story, news of a brown dwarf just 15 times the mass of Jupiter that has a planet-making disk of stuff around it. Together, more problems for astronomers, who still don't have a basic definition for the word planet or a firm idea of what separates planets from stars."

13 of 373 comments (clear)

  1. TMBG by angst7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think They Might be Giants defined what it was to be a star fairly well.

    "The sun is a mass of incandescent gas
    a giagantic nuclear furnace..."

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    1. Re:TMBG by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Could you throw the extra apostrophes you put in the "it's" into the Sun? kthx bye

  2. Superman by kevin-cs-edu · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Call it a planet, call it an asteroid or call it Wolszczan says, but call the setup a dark, eerie twin of the inner half of our solar system." It's Bizarro world, our solar system's dark, eerie twin.

  3. Planet Definition by FiReaNGeL · · Score: 4, Funny

    Astronomers don't have a planet definition? Here's one! Planets are round, asteroids aren't! How's that ? :)

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  4. Definition by null+etc. · · Score: 5, Funny
    ...or a firm idea of what separates planets from stars.

    Space. Quite a bit of it, I hope.

    Oh, you meant what criteria separates planets from stars?

    Well, I definitely would much rather live on one than the other. Is that a good definition?

    1. Re:Definition by hcdejong · · Score: 4, Funny

      Planet X
      Ah, but then we'd have to send...

      Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century!!!

  5. How insensitive! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..a brown dwarf just 15 times the mass of Jupiter..

    Please, "African American little person with a weight problem" is a little more appropriate and a lot less offensive, don't you think? Sheesh.

  6. Well Obviously by Madcapjack · · Score: 5, Funny
    Well Obviously this old dying star system is the original home of our species. We're just the descendents of the marooned colonists who found that their pyramid space-ships had suddenly (and quite inexplicably) turned to stone.

    Go figure.

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  7. I am picturing... by spankey51 · · Score: 3, Funny

    A small gathering of Mini Coopers around a campfire in europe... Or something...

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  8. What separates planets from stars by pronobozo · · Score: 5, Funny

    "who still don't have a basic definition for the word planet or a firm idea of what separates planets from stars."


    One is on fire and one isn't.

    Now hand over my research grant.

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  9. Re:No chance of life? by vwjeff · · Score: 5, Funny

    Acutally there are only two forms of life possible.

    According to whom?

    The only life we can be certain of is our own. Even then I sometimes wonder if I really exist. I guess I must because I am posting this, or am I?

  10. Re:Why on Earth does the name matter? by T-Ranger · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hence forth, all space boddies will be known as "thingies".

  11. Definition by GrabtharsHammer · · Score: 5, Funny

    planet n.
    Big lump of stuff, roundish, spinning a bit, usually orbiting a, um, star thingy. Might have aliens on, but probably not. Probably.