Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Object Defies Categorization As Planet or Star

Posted by timothy on from the stella-incognito dept.

Kligat writes "The COROT project of the French Space Agency has detected an object described as defying categorization as a planet, star, or brown dwarf. Although only 0.8 times the radius of Jupiter, it is over 20 times as massive, giving it a density twice that of the metal platinum. If it is a star, it would be the smallest of those ever discovered."

3 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It's a Dwarf! by PakProtector · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Dear Gods. Maybe it's a black dwarf. A dead star that burned through all its nuclear fuel long ago and has since cooled.

    --

    Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
    man: no entry for woman in the manual.
    "Qua!?"

  2. Re:It's a Dwarf! by Goobermunch · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If it is, we're going to have to reevaluate the age of the universe.

    Theoretically speaking, it should take longer than the current estimated age of the universe for a star to go through the evolution to red giant to white dwarf to black dwarf.

    If it is a black dwarf, that'd be flipping cool.

    --AC

  3. And the possible other exoplanet? by delibes · · Score: 3, Interesting

    OK, dense large planet, interesting... hang on, what about the other bit in the article?!
    Other signals detected by the satellite could also indicate the existence of another exoplanet with a radius 1.7 times that of Earth's.
    The little green men are getting more likely all the time...

    --
    This is not a sig