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Astronomers Find Planets Around Weird Binary Star

Posted by kdawson on from the eclipsing-actinic-pinprick dept.

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."

10 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    first

  2. bizarre choice of words. by MichaelKristopeit+98 · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    screwy, even. whacky. wild.

    slashdot = stagnated

    1. Re:bizarre choice of words. by MyLongNickName · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      screwy, even. whacky. wild.

      slashdot = stagnated

      Can you tell us what Slashdot was like back in the day when you first joined?

      --
      See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
    2. Re:bizarre choice of words. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      It smelled like onions.

    3. Re:bizarre choice of words. by MyLongNickName · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Kinda weird we are close to our 2 millionth account. Also strange that I went through the id's of about 75 recent uid numbers, about 1/3 were non-existent and none of the others had any posts. Ii wonder how many of our "users" are computer generated.

      --
      See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
    4. Re:bizarre choice of words. by Gilmoure · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      More like stale cheese and hot dryer lint. The late '90's all kinda' smelled like that.

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    5. Re:bizarre choice of words. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      For me the late 90s smelled like alcohol and pussy. I was in my early twenties so excessive drinking and picking up bar whores was the norm after a long day at work.

  3. Lose mass by following this 1 weird tip by RobertB-DC · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    I guess I've seen too many of those stupid banner ads for whatever scam it is that always uses some variation of the same thing. You know:

    $UNREALISTIC_RESULT by $OBEYING_VERB this $NUMBER_1 $WHIMSICAL_ADJECTIVE $INSTRUCTION_SYNONYM

    And then I keep reading, and sure enough, it has something to do with losing mass. F@(%!#% Internet, get out of my damned head!

    --
    Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
  4. Porn Stars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Let me get this straight. The White dwarf gave birth to the Red dwarf? Did Springer book them?

  5. Ok, Ok, Enough Already by jfz · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Wake me up when we have a viable option to Earth. Given Peak Oil, U.S. foreign policy, and global warming etc it seems we aren't learning from our mistakes and are going to need it.