First Four-Exoplanet System Imaged

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First Four-Exoplanet System Imaged

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday December 13, 2010 @04:46AM from the space-is-really-big dept.

Phoghat writes "Among the first exoplanet systems imaged was HR 8799. In 2008, a team led by Christian Marois at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Canada took a picture of the system, directly imaging three giant planets."

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I got in before the Slashdotting by MyLongNickName · 2010-12-13 04:52 · Score: 5, Informative

For those who were not able to get in before the Slashdotting, here is a picture in text
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O
o
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1. Re:I got in before the Slashdotting by biryokumaru · 2010-12-13 04:58 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  And here's a picture in jpg at an image hosting mirror.
  
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Re:Quite strange. by Daniel+Dvorkin · 2010-12-13 05:07 · Score: 5, Funny

loss of brightness due to osculation
It is true that once the serious making out begins, higher mental function tends to shut down, but I don't think that was quite what you meant.

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Re:Quite strange. by Red+Flayer · 2010-12-13 05:08 · Score: 5, Funny

is somehow more reliable and more worthy of our trust than the Doppler shifts, wobbles and loss of brightness due to osculation!
WTF is osculation?

From Webster's:

osculum (äskyoo lm, -ky-)
noun pl. oscula -la (-l)
any of the openings of a sponge though which water passes out
Are you suggesting that the images have been passed through the pisser of a sponge?

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Re:Quite strange. by Kjella · 2010-12-13 05:13 · Score: 5, Informative

Trust is not so important as being reproducible and verified by multiple methods. There's no explicit reason to distrust "doppler shifts, wobbles and loss of brightness due to osculation" but it's good science to say "Well, if what we're measuring is the result of a planet, we should be able to do X and see the planet directly. If we don't, there's something wrong. That it has been correct for near star systems give credibility to the other methods that they'll be correct for distant star systems. Sometimes you have to accept single-source results because it's the world's largest and most sensitive telescope or most powerful particle accelerator or things like that, but it's not ideal to leave it at that. Verifying results is a lot less glorious than making the discoveries in the first place, but it's an important part of science.

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Re:Once the tech process gets better... by macson_g · 2010-12-13 05:53 · Score: 5, Interesting

Let me remind you of the old anti-space colonization argument: The Gobi desert HAS a breathable atmosphere and I don't see people living there.