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Two Earth-Sized Bodies With Oxygen-Rich Atmospheres
tugfoigel writes "Astrophysicists at the University of Warwick and Kiel University have discovered two bodies the size of earth with oxygen-rich atmospheres — however, there is a disappointing snag for anyone looking for a potential home for alien life, or even a future home for ourselves. These are not planets, but are actually two unusual white dwarf stars." The objects, 220 and 400 light-years distant, are believed to be remnants of stars between 7 and 10 solar masses. Such stars, the largest that evolve to white dwarves, have been sought for years. If the stars were a little more massive they would collapse to neutron stars, or so the theory goes. Here is the paper on the arXiv.
I bet life forms from these environments would be really hot.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
In the image SDSS 1102+2054 looks blue. Shouldn't we call them blue dwarfs? Or should we call them smurfs?
Nearly all your comments are Stargate based. Seriously dude, you need a life.
In related news SETI Has Detected Intelligent Radio Signals From Space.
They are currently working on better methods to filter out the earth TV broadcasts being reflected back from the moon.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
I prefer a chiropractor.
I don't see how TV broadcasts could be considered signs of intelligent life.
It was a Fox News with a ShamWow commercial.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Yes, this is causing a huge strain on news stories and an overall problem to humankind.
Please let us find new planets so the stories about false positives can stop.
Exception Duck - may or may not contain chicken.
No, astromatt's understanding of the rules of grammar is correct. Because "White Dwarf" refers to an entity unrelated to a "dwarf", it's pluralised as a proper noun (which generally ignores suffix manipulation). If you knew two people named "Dwarf", you wouldn't say "the two dwarves" (which would only be valid if Dwarf and Dwarf were very short and you were intentionally pointing it out), you'd say "the two Dwarfs".
I'm not a master of the finer nitpicks of the English language, but "white dwarf" is not a name - it's a class like being a star, pulsar, planet, asteroid, meteorite, comet or whatever. Try reading something like a Star Trek science report to yourself "Three pulars, two supernovas, two neutron stars and five white dwarves." No way are those "White Dwarf", "White Dwarf", "White Dwarf", "White Dwarf" and "White Dwarf" as in the "five White Dwarfs".
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Naw, dense would imply large amounts of muscle mass and little fat, so they can't be American :P