Slashdot Mirror
Probable Rogue Planet Spotted
Maow writes with news of a sighting of a rogue gas giant: "'This object was discovered during a scan that covered the equivalent of 1,000 times the [area] of the full moon,' said study co-author Etienne Artigau of the University of Montreal. 'We observed hundreds of millions of stars and planets, but we only found one homeless planet in our neighborhood.' This planet appears to be an astonishingly young 50-120 million years old. The original paper is on the arXiv. Here's hoping the Mayan End-of-World-2012 people don't seize upon this as some kind of impending rogue planet on a collision course with Earth, but one can expect it'll be bantered about on such forums."
From the article: "The team believe it has a temperature of about 400C and a mass between four and seven times that of Jupiter - well short of the mass limit that would make it a likely brown dwarf."
can reach earth before they get too far?
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Spotted it! Those puppeteers are going to have to come up with a new plan now, or give me one million stars to not reveal the secret.
It's a rogue planet!
we only found one homeless planet in our neighborhood
Either the galactic economy is going well, or they are good at hiding the problems.
It's the DEATH STAR!!
Have they found Genesis? Genesis allowed is not! Is planet forbidden!
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
Given that the definition of a planet is dependent on the relationship between objects (planet and star, planet and moon, planet and other objects in the same orbit), how can something be classified as a type of planet if there are no observations of that object in relation to other objects in a planetary system?
Soon we will discover there is a new and exceedingly valuable element on the rogue planet and rush to mine it. Project Visitor at last!
Blish (who is completely out of favour as an SF writer - too intellectual) pointed out that drives which manipulate gravity or space need not be attached to a vehicle - they can just be attached to anything that you want to move. His "Cities in Flight" series describes whole commercial cities which specialise in specific services - often mining or refining - traveling the galaxy looking for work.
At one point a small planet is provided with propulsion in this way. Perhaps.....
First, in the summary you forget to identify the distance: 100ly. Well, that pretty much rules out any worry of a collision even if at such a distance the alignment would be astronomically unlikely to be one which would allow for a collision.
Second, why does anyone care if there is a 'spike' in discussion with the 2012 doomsayers? You think there WOULDN'T be a spike in discussion around December 2012? And who cares if there is? The good news, is that by January, all the 2012 end of the world nonsense will be over (Even if they are right ;) )
My problem isn't any of that however. My problem is THIS travesty from the article:
One tricky part is determining if rogue planet candidates are as massive as the "failed stars" known as brown dwarfs, further along in stellar evolution but without enough mass to spark the nuclear fusion that causes starlight.
It's so freaking wrong I can't even parse it to bitch about it in any specific manner. And to me, that's the worst thing that could happen. If I can't complain, I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
prediction of the end of the world all you want. But on the next day you must promise to never, ever, talk about the end of the world.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Rogue planet all by its lonesome?
Let's name it Han Solo.
Let me know when they discover a nethack planet.
mod me funny
For details we turn to our usual correspondent...
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
The good news: It is 100 light years away from Earth so there's no way for it to reach us in time.
The not so good news: 100 light years is nothing cosmic-distance-wise. If our detection capabilities can let us spot a Super-Jupiter sized object 100 light years away, are there smaller object that are closer, but still pose a threat? This is completely unrelated to the Mayan Apocalypse nonsense. We should improve our detection abilities mainly to spot asteroids headed our way in time to prevent a catastrophe.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
We don't want no rogue planets around here !!
Robin Gibb is dead !!
Of the two possible origins of planets like this, the first would be that it's a star that didn't get enough mass to ignite. This seems to make the most intuitive sense to me.
The other possibility is that it was somehow ejected form it's parent star. This seems less likely, but then I'm not an astrophysicist. What would it take to eject a planet that large from it's solar system?
What kind of event would it take to say, eject Jupiter? Would it take a huge rogue Nemesis kind of star, or could something smaller perturb it's orbit just enough to eject it?
Assuming it was ejected, could you not interpolate from the planets velocity just where it came from, work backwards to find it's old parent star, and perhaps even figure out what other stellar body it interacted with that caused the planet to be ejected?
Anyone know the Mondoshawan area code?
Eighteen years too late to be prophetic, and still way too far out, but... hey, if I get my own Mok, who cares?
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/12/21/17846/757
LocalRoger wrote several shorts based in this universe. I though they were great, and am still waiting for a book.
When and if it starts orbiting our sun, or is it another quasi-planet or whatever Pluto is called nowadays
"I wish I lived on a planet that had two suns---regular sun and 'rogue' sun. That way, when somebody asked me what time it was, I'd say, 'Regular time?' And they'd say, 'Yeah.' And I'd say, 'Sorry, all I have is rogue time.' It'd be fun to be a stuck-up rogue-time guy."
Final Yamato Main article: Final Yamato Premiering in Japanese theaters on March 19, 1983, Final Yamato reunites the crew one more time to combat the threat of the Denguilu, a militaristic alien civilization that intends to use the water planet, Aquarius, to flood Earth and resettle there (having lost their home planet to a galactic collision). Captain Okita, who was found to be in cryogenic sleep since the first season, returns to command the Yamato and sacrifices himself to stop the Denguili's plan. Susumu and Yuki also get married. The story is set in the year 2203, contradicting earlier assumptions that its predecessor, Yamato III, took place in 2205. Having a running time of 163 minutes, Final Yamato retains the record of being the longest animated film ever made.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"First things first -- but not necessarily in that order"
-- The Doctor, "Doctor
Great. Just great. Homeless planets orbiting around the neighborhood, pushing a giant shopping cart, talking to themselves, collecting cans, hanging around stoplights washing windows... Shit. There goes the neighborhood.
Is there some nuclear fusion going on, even though the planet is less massive than a brown dwarf, or is it just residual heat?
We can only hope that they haven't detected us yet...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip6NKDAMYXQ
Orphan sounds more appropriate than rogue. Rogue is like it's out to do some damage, which is mathematically not very feasible for it anyway.
We better all keep our eyes on it, it's already rogue, you never know if it might get all mavericky on us.
you know someone's gonna say it
in the subject line is confusing and annoying. We need a "-1 poor communication skills" mod option! :)
Sounds like something right out of Space 1999, which was considered very pseudoscience.
Mongo! Ming is coming!
* Carthago Delenda Est *
that you didn't get to post a Space 1999 FP line on Slashdot. Resistance is futile...
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Does anyone know why it is so hot?
...I'm holding out for the Shaman planet.
What's keeping it at 400C? Or is it almost a brown dwarf - though Jupiter doesn't get to that sort of temperature on my understanding.
Planet X...... The X stands for the unknown as to where it came from and where it is going. But when we figure that out it won't be Planet X anymore. It will be Planet With a plan.
"The team believe it has a temperature of about 400C and a mass between four and seven times that of Jupiter - well short of the mass limit that would make it a likely brown dwarf.
What remains unclear is just how the planet came to be - the tiny beginnings of a star, or planet launched from its home?"
Let's Go!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyRvTlkmzwA
Fire up the X-wings. S-foils locked in attack position. When 45 years old you are, look as good you will not.