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The Exoplanets That Never Were

Posted by samzenpus on from the planetary-false-positive dept.

StartsWithABang writes In 1992, scientists discovered the first planets orbiting a star other than our Sun. The pulsar PSR B1257+12 was discovered to have its own planetary system, and since then, exoplanet discoveries have exploded. But before that, in 1963, decades of research led to the much-anticipated publication and announcement of an exoplanet discovered around Barnard's star, the second-closest star system to Earth. Unfortunately, it turned out to be spurious, and it took years to uncover, an amazing story which is only now fully coming to light.

6 of 31 comments (clear)

  1. So close, and yet so far away. by rmdingler · · Score: 2, Insightful
    You know, we're right on the verge of possessing the technology of an advanced, universe exploring, sentient life form.

    Keep that in mind for perspective when the next beheading video hits the internet.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  2. Red dwarfs form from so little matter by jfdavis668 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm not surprised that there are no planets. Red dwarfs form from very small amounts of matter, and don't have the luminosity or stellar wind to stop the in-fall of matter into the central star. I don't doubt they can form, the same way double stars form, but the odds are lower. Just a lot less initial material to start with.

    1. Re:Red dwarfs form from so little matter by radtea · · Score: 2

      I'm not surprised that there are no planets.

      Given that we've discovered planets everywhere we never expected planets to be, being "not surprised" at not finding planets is pretty weird. The damned things are everywhere!

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
    2. Re:Red dwarfs form from so little matter by Trogre · · Score: 4, Informative

      The star in question is Barnard's Star, a red dwarf.

      Pulsar PSR B1257+12 was credited in the summary as an example at the start of the modern explosion in discovering extrasolar planets, not the one that was mistakenly thought to have planets.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    3. Re:Red dwarfs form from so little matter by able1234au · · Score: 2

      Given that Red Dwarves (Dwarfs?) are like large jupiters and jupiter has moons, why would a Red Dwarf not have moon-like objects? Whether we call them planets or moons is just a matter of classification.

  3. Amazing story by manu0601 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I am not sure "amazing story" is something else than marketing here :-)