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Astronomers Find Planets Around Weird Binary Star

The Bad Astronomer writes "Exoplanets orbiting binary stars have been discovered before, but NN Serpentis is a weird system even in that category. One star is a red dwarf in an incredibly tight orbit around a white dwarf. The white dwarf used to be a star like the Sun but became a red giant as it died, engulfing the red dwarf. Now the two orbit each other almost as closely as the Moon orbits the Earth. Explaining how the two newly detected exoplanets survived such an event is very difficult, and astronomers think they may have actually formed from the material expelled by the star as it died."

4 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The view must be nice by Fulcrum+of+Evil · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's not an analytical tool, it's there to allow you to reflect on reasons why there could be intelligent life that we haven't seen.

    --
    "We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
  2. Re:Cue The Carbon-Based Life by Gilmoure · · Score: 2, Informative

    Can always check for life on neutron stars.

    --
    I drank what? -- Socrates
  3. Re:Cue The Carbon-Based Life by cynyr · · Score: 2, Informative

    ahh "ants! Natures secret power" Youtube has a 6 minute version rather than the 2 minute version the parent linked. It's also much better quality.

    As for why we think of ants this way is that while they are "highly ordered" they have none of the things we regard as "intelligence" markers; memory, sense of time, art, etc.

    --
    All of the above was encrypted with a Quad ROT-13 method. Unauthorized decryption is in violation of the DMCA.
  4. Re:Cue The Carbon-Based Life by Steneub · · Score: 1, Informative

    Searching for that yields a 6 part documentary that is absolutely fascinating! A worthy presentation to be sure.