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Star Cooler Than Venus Found
crossconnects writes to mention that Discovery is reporting that astronomers have found a nearby star with a mild surface temperature of 660 degrees fahrenheit. "The spectacularly unspectacular object is of special interest because it falls right smack in the middle of the final frontier that divides mega-planets from the puniest stars. Stars in that realm theoretically qualify as an entirely new stellar type -- what's called a Y class dwarf."
No, not when audience is the American public.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
Even if it's the scientific American public?
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Kelvin is the best.
In a scientific article, I would expect stellar temperatures to be given in Kelvins.
In a popular article, Celsius or Fahrenheit (depending on country) are probably expected and more understandable to a general audience.
Ideally, any good article would give the measurement or estimate in the original units first (and with the original degree of precision), followed by a conversion if needed for the expected audience.
While the conditions are almost there for life similar to that of Earth to develop, the problem is that there are a lot of 'almosts', and I'm willing to bet that almost won't cut it in this case.
Just two of the things that would probably cause problems is that it is likely a very turbulent atmosphere when compared to that of Earth, and of course, there is also the likely high amount of radiation that is bouncing around (it is a star after all).
If we are thinking DNA/RNA based life, the radiation involved would make it very hard to reproduce.
As I type this more and more obstacles are coming to light, but I couldn't imagine a situation in which life could occur on a star.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
To some degree, you are correct; American scientists, the target audience of the original publication, would prefer the Kelvin unit, which was indeed used in the original publication. However, I don't think the Discovery channel's target audience is primarily scientists but rather the American public, which prefers Farenheit - hence the use of that unit on the Discovery channel's website (the location of TFA).
600 F has no meaning? The dial on my oven goes up to 600 degrees. It's also the temperature gasoline ignites at. We are hardly talking about astronomical temperatures beyond our comprehension.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace