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Astronomers See the Glow of a Boiling Planet
The Bad Astronomer writes "For the first time, astronomers have detected the light from a 'super-Earth' exoplanet. The planet 55 Cancri e (with twice the radius and 8 times the mass of Earth) circles its host star every 18 hours, and is so hot it glows in the infrared. By observing in that wavelength, the astronomers measured the dip in light as the planet's glow was blocked by the star itself. This is the reverse of the usual method of detecting a planet as it blocks the light of its host star."
Before it doesn't emit infrared radiation?
To be honest, I actually I do find the posts somewhat entertaining. If this kid were writing a novel rather than trolling, I'd expect a pretty decent piece of literature to result. There's a nice blend of imagination, misdirection, and vocabulary that just appeals to me. I greatly prefer this to the post immediately below (as I write this) which includes "jason has a firm grip on shitstick".
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
The only planets larger than Earth in the Solar system are the gas giants, so a super Earth is just a designation for a planet more massive than Earth, but not a gas giant.
What exactly justified it to be called super-Earth?
Earth-like but significantly bigger than earth. The planet in question is 8 times the mass of Earth with twice the radius so roughly the same density. It might only be a factor of 8 in mass but if you saw a person with 8 times the average mass, say ~600kg, you'd certainly call them super-sized! As for temperature Venus is hotter than Earth but with a surface temperature of 460C it's decidedly nippy compared to the planet in question which is just over 1700C.
I suggest we send Finnish astronauts. They actually like this sort of place.
"Cosmonaut Hämeenniemi! Have you reached the planet, what is it like!"
(long delay)
"Shhh... I'm relaxing"
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
A watched planet never boils...
The problem here is one of nomenclature and trying to define different terms for planets. In our Solar System there are no "super-Earth" sized planets, so until exo-solar planets were discovered there was no need for any classification for planets that sized. Basically there is a need to define planets smaller than the "small gas giants" like Neptune and Uranus and something larger than the size of the Earth or Venus.
Currently that is being called "Super Earth" because it shares many more characteristics with the Earth than it does with the gas giants.
A similar scaling problem exists for planets that are a couple times the size of Jupiter, and larger, but aren't really large enough to ignite nuclear fusion. Sometimes those are called "brown dwarfs", but "super gas giants" is sometimes used too.... odd where a dwarf is more massive than a giant.
A dwarf human is still much larger than a giant ant. :)
Excuse me, wtf r u doin?
Leave the AC alone. At least he exists!