Slashdot Mirror
Object Defies Categorization As Planet or Star
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."
Thats no moon...
Eh. how about calling it "large dense object in space" also known as The Shatner
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
Oddly enough, the interstitial ad for this is for "Mass Effect"
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
Only Chuck Norris could ever be denser than platinum, so this is either him or soon getting destroyed because only Chuck Norris can defy the laws of physics.
Quick... somebody run find Leeloo...
My bathroom broke on an interstellar sight-seeing trip and I had to go real bad...
...needs classification badly
Well assuming it isn't as simple as "well it does/doesn't give off light so it is/isn't a star" even though I have no idea why it's not that simple, I'd say it's a good candidate for what most dark matter is. If it doesn't give off light and isn't close enough to a star to be seen (I mean this one is buy others like it) then it's dark, effectively invisible matter. If a nebula comes together from gravity and it's a really, really small nebula, it could form one of these instead of a star and we simply wouldn't be able to see it. Sounds like an explanation for the missing matter to me.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
And bigger than a burning Uranus, call it a stanet, or a plar...
Actually, I was trying to be silly with Spoonerism, but, upon checking Google, sure enough, it has been done:
http://www.futuresoon.com/2008/04/six-for-science_11.html
And, done here, too:
http://uplink.space.com/printthread.php?Cat=&Board=sciastro&main=570057&type=thread
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Except that Dark Matter as we currently understand it is not simply matter that's "in the dark." Under current cosmological theory, regular baryonic matter, makes up only a small fraction of the universe, with dark matter (i.e., non-baryonic matter) making up some of the rest and dark energy making up approximately 70%.
So while this object contributes to some of the missing mass in the universe, it's probably not the kind of thing that properly would be called dark matter.
--AC
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
* is in orbit around the Sun,
* has sufficient mass so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and
* has "cleared the neighbourhood" around its orbit. Emphasis mine.
Woo! That movie is gonna be awesome!
[signature]
it's just a Nibblonian latrine.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
YO MOMMA!
cuz yo mommma so fat, she got two smaller mommas orbiting around her!
http://www.object404.com
fire missiles at it. You gotta remember that evil begets evil. That thing will fuck up your ship.
You could have RTFA, but this is slashdot almost no-one does that. The method for detecting the planets is in it:
The satellite uses the transit method to detect planets as they pass in front of their parent star and block out part of the light seen by the telescope.Geraldo Springer: I must insist you answer me! Are you a planet, or a star?
[sputters]
Unclassified Object: I may be a star... perhaps.
[lays pinky finger to corner of mouth]
Or am I a planet?
[simpers]
Or maybe, just maybe
[faces away from camera, drops pants, bends over]
I AM A MOON!
So, you have detected the home planet Eddore. Destruction of your paltry rock world will begin shortly.
Didn't the IAU just "figure out" the definitions of stars and planets? Are we going to have another year long line of BS talks and arguments, ending in a bad definition that rewrites every science book and generally gives everyone a headache? I hope not...
The French Space Agency? That's funny, I'm French and I didn't even know we had that. Don't they mean European rather than French?
You just got troll'd!
The problem that Pluto had that led to its demotion is that it has nothing special, it one in many bodies that exists beyond the gas giants, and the only thing that makes it particular is that it was found long before the others because it gave away its position by interfering with the orbit of a planet.
On a strictly technical point of view, it is mostly a large chunk of ice that has a non-circular orbit outside of the planets orbital plan, so calling it a dwarf planet is a polite way of not calling it a large comet.
1 x 4 x 9?
It's large, very dense and overly dramatic in it's introduction. Yup, that's a Shatner object.
Invenio via vel creo
that classifications we maintain for comets, planets, gas giants are entirely our own invention, and can change upon whim. 'declassification' of pluto just proved that.
its rather meaningless. if pluto had atmosphere, would i be able to live on it ? if thats so, i call it a planet. and noone can change my mind.
Read radical news here
I sometimes find it funny when scientists are surprised at something new that defies their logic. We live in a huge [poor word] existence [since we don't know how big and current words may not be enough]. I'm excited myself to the new discoveries that will continue to take place. I only wish I could live longer to see some of the major changes that I think will take place after a couple of centuries [if we still exist].
Does it fuse? No? Then it is not a sun, or?
Ergo it is a planet!!
No idea why anyone claims the object could not be categorized.
Did you ever notice that the planets closer to the sun are mainly rock/metal and the ones farer away are mainly gas/ice?
So if you have an exo planet very close to his sun it will likely be a rocky planet (for various reasons beyond a short answer here), if it is a heavy rocky planet it will be likely smaller than a similar heavy gas planet.
As the planet is mainly rock/metal it CAN'T even fuse if it is 10 or 20 times more heavy!! So it can't be classified as a brown dwarf either.
angel'o'sphere
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
It's inside out.
Program Intellivision!