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Astronomers Discover Nearby 'Young Jupiter' Exoplanet

Posted by Soulskill on from the baby-pictures dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Astronomers from Stanford and the Kavli Institute have discovered a new exoplanet orbiting 51 Eridani that strongly resembles a young Jupiter. They say its similarities could help us to understand how our own solar system formed. It's a convenient discovery, because 51 Eridani is less than 100 light-years away, and only about 20 million years old. The discovery was confirmed by astronomers at the Keck Observatory and published in Science (abstract). "In addition to being the lowest-mass planet ever imaged, it's also one of the coldest – 800 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas others are around 1,200 F – and features the strongest atmospheric methane signal on record. Previous Jupiter-like exoplanets have shown only faint traces of methane, far different from the heavy methane atmospheres of the gas giants in our solar system."

17 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. Re:but but by atropa · · Score: 1

    #50319267.

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    moo
  2. Young. by grub · · Score: 3, Interesting


    only about 20 million years old

    Neat to think that the dinosaurs were already gone for 45 million years when this planet came to be.

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    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:Young. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not really. Dinosaurs are still with us today. Why, I have several outside right now eating sunflower seeds from the feeder.

    2. Re:Young. by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      " Dinosaurs are still with us today. Why, I have several outside right now eating sunflower seeds from the feeder."

      That is why the rest of us don't live in Australia.

    3. Re:Young. by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Chickens? I hate how the scruffy little bastards look at me. Imagine POWs eyeing the guards when they can hear their side's guns in the distance. Yeah, you jumped up bunch of monkeys, you're in charge - for the moment.

      It's like they're just waiting for the next asteroid to put them back in their rightful place.

      On a bed of onions, mushrooms & wine in a casser0., '"1!
      no carrier

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  3. Re: Pretty damned cold by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Well I agree since absolute zero is -459.67F...

  4. Re:Pretty damned cold by bobthesungeek76036 · · Score: 1

    -800F Wow! I am thinking that might be below (well below!) Absolute Zero.

    What happens below absolute zero? Do electrons start orbiting backwards?

    I have to agree that was a poor choice of delimiter there...

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    Karma: Bad
  5. that Jupiter God Guy sure got around, didn't he? by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    lots of babies have his "look".

  6. Congratulations by MightyMait · · Score: 1

    Congratulations to my college classmate, Rebecca Oppenheimer, co-author of the paper, and researcher at the American Museum of Natural History. Here's the AMNH announcement:
    http://www.amnh.org/explore/ne...

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    Nothing interesting to say...MUST...NOT...REPLY...ohtheheckwithit.
  7. Re:Pretty damned cold by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Do tell us where you found a minus sign on that temperature. There isn't one.

  8. Re:Pretty damned cold by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Yeah, that's en-dash, not a minus sign. Good jorb!

  9. Re:Pretty damned cold by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    – 800 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas others are around 1,200 F –

    That is not a minus sign, it is dashes around a phrase.

  10. Use it to detect NEO asteroids? by vpness · · Score: 1

    Why not point it a little closer to home? If it can detect a planet light years away, seems it could detect much smaller, but closer asteroids?

  11. Re:Pretty damned cold by mcl630 · · Score: 1

    The electrons go backwards in time. ;)

  12. Discovered by Gemini Planet Imager by G3CK0 · · Score: 1

    Here is Gemini's press release - I didn't see it linked in any of the articles: https://www.gemini.edu/node/12...

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    A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
  13. SI units by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    Why not use SI units? While I can understand Fahrenheit makes more sense to some crowd for everyday temperature, this is not the case here.

  14. Re:Pretty damned cold by rubycodez · · Score: 1

    Frank Herbert hit the bong too hard one day and wrote similar silliness in Dune, minus ten kelvin I think it was?