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Fomalhaut's Exoplanets Have Orbits That Defy Theory

Posted by Soulskill on from the home-of-the-utwig dept.

astroengine writes "Astronomers believe they have found a second distant planet around Fomalhaut, a bright young neighbor star, and that the far-out world — like its sister planet — is shepherding and shaping the star's ring of dust. If confirmed, theorists have some work to do explaining how the planet, believed to be a few times bigger than Mars, ended up 155 times as far away from its parent star as Earth is to the sun. 'We're learning a lot about planets that are close to their stars, but that is not the full picture. We also want to know about systems where planets are very far out. By considering near-, far- and mid-range, we can get a complete picture of planet formation,' University of Florida astronomer Aaron Boley said." There was another fascinating bit of news about Fomalhaut a few days ago: "ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory has studied the dusty belt around the nearby star Fomalhaut. The dust appears to be coming from collisions that destroy up to thousands of icy comets every day."

14 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Theory by dunng808 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Perhaps the Empire has been testing its fully operational Death Star. Just a theory.

    --

    Gary Dunn
    Open Slate Project

  2. Re:Theory by sysrammer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No, that's a hypothesis.

    --
    His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
  3. Science! by geekoid · · Score: 2

    More facts, theories expand.

    Love it.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  4. Advanced civilizations by rrohbeck · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They're just a little higher on the Kardashev scale than astronomers can imagine.
    Meh, I've read about stuff like this since I was a kid.

    --
    thegodmovie.com - watch it
  5. Re:Theory by FunkDup · · Score: 3, Informative

    So... what is the theory that its defying?

    I think the theory is that rocky planets and dusty rings should be orbiting much closer to a star that's only twice as big as ours.

    The suspected planet would be the second planet found orbiting Fomalhaut, a very bright star located about 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Austrinus. Fomalhaut is twice as big as our sun and encircled by a disk of dust 16 times wider than the span between the sun and Earth.
    The inner edge of the ring is about 135 times as far as away from the star as Earth is to the sun.

    --
    Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds -- Albert Einstein
  6. Astrophysics for fun by oldhack · · Score: 4, Funny

    Astrophysics seems to be an entertaining field - a surprise every other week. Sure beats particle physics.

    --
    Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
    1. Re:Astrophysics for fun by HornWumpus · · Score: 2

      You can generally get beer at classical mechanics (pool) halls.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  7. I don't see the problem. by jd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Since it formed very early on, it's most likely a proto-planet rather than a mature planet. Planetary theory is only designed for mature planets, because statistics doesn't apply to extremely small numbers and extremely small numbers is exactly what you have when dealing with proto-planets. Ergo, the theory cannot be applied sensibly, ergo there is no theory that can be described as being defied.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    1. Re:I don't see the problem. by Grayhand · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Since it formed very early on, it's most likely a proto-planet rather than a mature planet. Planetary theory is only designed for mature planets, because statistics doesn't apply to extremely small numbers and extremely small numbers is exactly what you have when dealing with proto-planets. Ergo, the theory cannot be applied sensibly, ergo there is no theory that can be described as being defied.

      There's also the possibility of captured planets since there are believed to be a large number that form in the outer fringes of systems and in interstellar space. They are believed to be a large part of the missing matter. It's a tricky balance capturing a planet that far out due to the extremely low gravity. Odds are they'd have a very elliptical orbit much like Pluto.

    2. Re:I don't see the problem. by jd · · Score: 2

      Ceres is a proto-Planet and recent evidence suggests Vesta is also. My guess is that the KBOs that are larger than Pluto are also proto-Planets, although ones larger than Vesta and smaller than Pluto may or may not be depending on mass and structure.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  8. How much sleep ya need, Kelvin? by vaene · · Score: 2

    The only solution is to send researchers there and see if their dead girlfriends start showing up.

  9. Re:Theory by Higgins_Boson · · Score: 2

    No, that's a hypothesis.

    Of course it's a hypothesis! I mean, there's NO WAY the Death Star is fully operational yet.

  10. An Interesting Thought by bistromath007 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    When I first read the bit about what the planets are doing, my immediate thought was "mining." That's not the interesting part, just a thought I had.

    The interesting part: what if I was right, and we carried right on with attempting to jam this observation into our understanding of the universe? What if we saw lots of mining ops, or beacons? (Seems to me they'd be indistinguishable from wacky pulsars unless they were doing some silly "trying to make first contact" trick.) What if we wound up with all manner of complex theories about how things behave in deep space that seem to have nothing to do with the real world? What if we got stuck here because of it?

    It feels like something one of the old-school hard-SF authors would've done a short story about at some point. Any recommendations?

  11. Re:Theory by slick7 · · Score: 3, Funny

    It is a government project therefore it will never be fully operational so long as the government has money to spend.

    Maybe this will help.
    An elephant is a mouse built to government specs.

    --
    The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.