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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...
...needs classification badly
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"
Nibbler?
We've searched for large, dense objects that create dark matter (MACHOs) with microlensing, but there aren't nearly enough. Combined with some other properties of dark matter observed in other galaxies, where it appears to be distinct from normal matter, we're fairly sure now that it's small particles with a mass, such as neutrinos or some as yet undiscovered particle (WIMPs). Wikipedia will probably tell you more.
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
It must have been the Captain's Log...
C|N>K
* 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
It's been a long, long, time since I've seen a Uranus joke that made me laugh :)
Fnord.
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!
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!