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First Images Ever Taken of a Planet Being Formed, 450 Light-Years From Earth (sydney.edu.au)

Posted by Soulskill on from the this-planet-is-under-construction dept.

Zothecula writes: Of the many new exoplanets discovered over the past two decades, all have been identified as established, older planets – none have been acknowledged as newly-forming protoplanets. Now scientists working at the Keck observatory have spied just such a planet in the constellation of Taurus, some 450 light-years from Earth (abstract), that is only just beginning its life, collecting matter and spinning into a brand new world.

36 comments

  1. A long time away then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's leave now and we get there in 450 years?

    1. Re:A long time away then by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Well, give us a few minutes to sort how we travel at three hundred million metres per second, then we'll head.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    2. Re:A long time away then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, give us a few minutes to sort how we travel at three hundred million metres per second, then we'll head.

      Traveling the speed of light is a solvable problem for a geek, the head part isn't.

    3. Re:A long time away then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, give us a few minutes to sort how we travel at three hundred million metres per second, then we'll head.

      Traveling the speed of light is a solvable problem for a geek, the head part isn't.

      Agreed. Geeks will never figure out how to get head.

  2. Keck. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Top Keck.

    1. Re: Keck. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Glad to see I wasn't the only one...

  3. First ever? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The images are nice, but the bigger story here is the implicit claim by the researchers that there is no alien civilization in the universe advanced enough to have done the same feat before us.

    1. Re:First ever? by rossdee · · Score: 1

      Yep, I'm sure Slartibardfast and the other Magratheans kept visual records of their creations billions of years ago

    2. Re:First ever? by Maritz · · Score: 0

      It's a perfectly reasonable assumption, hence why the Fermi paradox is a paradox. Anything capable enough to spread throughout the galaxy should be fairly obvious to us at this point.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    3. Re:First ever? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The United Federation of Planets and their Genesis project...

    4. Re:First ever? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a perfectly reasonable assumption, hence why the Fermi paradox is a paradox. Anything capable enough to spread throughout the galaxy should be fairly obvious to us at this point.

      Why?

      Why should it be obvious to us at this point? Something capable at interstellar travel wouldn't waste energy sending EM-radiation our way.
      Something capable enough to spread throughout the galaxy could have individuals the fraction our size and generational spaceships the size of a melon.
      That something clearly has an understanding of physics far beyond what we do, it might not even exist spatially in a way that we can perceive.

      The Fermi paradox and Drakes equation are pointless. They leave out more variables than they cover.

    5. Re:First ever? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How can anything or anyone be "capable enough"? You are assuming the Periodic Table of Elements has some hidden elements, that we've missed some fundamental force somewhere?

      The only paradox is why anyone still thinks Star Trek is our destiny and is just around the corner.

      There is no paradox. Life is probably everywhere. Physics, chemistry. and engineering are the same everywhere. They are there, we are here, they can't get here, we can't get there, they can't build starships, neither can we.

      The end. No paradox there.

    6. Re:First ever? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You missed the Adamantium element they found a few years ago then?

    7. Re:First ever? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How can anything or anyone be "capable enough"? You are assuming the Periodic Table of Elements has some hidden elements, that we've missed some fundamental force somewhere?

      The only paradox is why anyone still thinks Star Trek is our destiny and is just around the corner.

      There is no paradox. Life is probably everywhere. Physics, chemistry. and engineering are the same everywhere. They are there, we are here, they can't get here, we can't get there, they can't build starships, neither can we.

      The end. No paradox there.

      Not with that attitude we can't.

      It is clear and has been well established that those that can do and those that can't make excuses and point fingers and blame.

      Another thing is the idea that anything worth doing takes time, that is to say, learning is a process.

      You present the straw man argument about Star Trek being our destiny. To say it is a destiny is not the argument, but whether a practical method of interstellar travel can be engineered. To do so is a large and expensive task for sure. Can we do it now? no we can't but does that mean we will never do it? (this is where your vulcan straw man falls apart) Even if it takes us, as a species 10,000 years, it is arguable that finding another habitat off of Earth is a survival imperative for our species. You under estimate our will to survive and on top of that, based on your own limited and myopic view of what is possible to do versus what we currently have the ability to do is the source of your confusion.

      I am not going to argue with you about it, because it is a waste of time and you will never be convinced of your shortsighted view per your confirmation bias and the dunning - kruger effect.

    8. Re:First ever? by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

      I'm still awaiting the discovery of felonium, which would be confirmation that even the world of physics has a criminal element.

      --
      This space unintentionally left blank.
    9. Re:First ever? by spire3661 · · Score: 1

      Probability includes the chance of ZERO. Dont ever ever forget that. There is a probability that we are the first race in the Cosmos with our capabilities. Dont wield probability without fully understanding it. It takes just as much as it gives.

      --
      Good-bye
    10. Re:First ever? by spire3661 · · Score: 1

      The Fermi Paradox has no bounded data to draw from. The data we have is nowhere near complete enough to make the statement you or even Fermi are making. The Fermi Paradox is an interesting idea, but its certainly not a fully accepted one. Its something to you can point to and go 'thats a neat thought' and thats about it. It is a minor philosophical exercise, always keep that in mind.

      The Fermi Paradox is easily countered with one simple question: 'What if we are simply the first ones?' Even calling it a paradox really only lends it more credence than it deserves. Its not really a paradox at all. It is simply combining incomplete data and complaining that garbage comes out.

      --
      Good-bye
    11. Re:First ever? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Attitude doesn't fly 400 passengers across the Atlantic in six hours. Jet aircraft do.

      Where is the 747 to the Space Nutter fantasies?

    12. Re:First ever? by sudon't · · Score: 1

      Was Adamantium named after 80's pop star Adam Ant?

      Anyway, Fermi's Paradox isn't so paradoxical. It's a supposition based on pure speculation. Also, the Universe is big, really big, and we may be the only inhabitants of the Milky Way, which itself is really big. We just don't know. Regardless, even we, the only known intelligent life-form, haven't managed interstellar travel. Assuming we do, how many ships would we send out? How many ships would it take to visit even one-percent of the galaxy? Let's not forget, we're talking about ships that would take generations of crew to get almost anywhere, based on what we know of physics.

      Same with Drake's Equation. It's a statistical projection based on a sample of exactly one. Not much of a sample, that. If we had any idea of how life arose, we might be able to make some predictions.

      --
      -- sudon't

      Air-ride Equipped

  4. Taurus? by Nidi62 · · Score: 2

    Just please don't send some ships out there to investigate it. While pocket lasers would be cool, we really don't need a millenia-long interstellar war.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  5. shit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I didn't see any shit, only a few dots, and some drawen animation, you call that sience ?

  6. If only.. by Marginal+Coward · · Score: 1

    If only Nicolaus Copernicus could have been around when this happened. Oh wait...he was...

    1. Re:If only.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Considering the planet has been forming for hundreds of thousands if not millions of years, every human in recorded history has been around while this happened, and very likely all humans for the rest of recorded history as well.

    2. Re:If only.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's just a joke, ah say, a joke, son...

  7. So wait a minute by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We're exploring the universe from our computer chairs?

    But I was told we must put test pilots in tin cans at 400km in order to explore space?

    You know, 400Km is 0.00000000001% closer to 450 light years!

    We must do it!!

    1. Re:So wait a minute by amicusNYCL · · Score: 1

      We're exploring the universe from our computer chairs?

      No, we're just taking pictures of it. If you're flying in a plane over the Grand Canyon and you take a picture of it, that's not the same thing as exploring the Grand Canyon.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    2. Re:So wait a minute by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If it is the first time anyone has ever seen the Grand Canyon, then taking pictures remotely is exploring the Grand Canyon.

    3. Re:So wait a minute by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even easier ... just wait 1/2 a year for the earth to be on the closer side of the sun; think of the fuel savings.

  8. Wow! by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    These planets appear to have taken the form of gigantic squares!

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. Re:Wow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, we are in a 2D world with a 3D projection everywhere we look. You can't expect with the zoom factor and the young age of the planet, that the antialias algorithms are any good. Wait a few million years and it gets better.

    2. Re:Wow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let me just say, um, what?

  9. Science! by sjbe · · Score: 2

    I didn't see any shit, only a few dots, and some drawen animation, you call that sience ?

    No we call it science.

  10. 450 years ago by paulpach · · Score: 1

    They do realize the planet was forming 450 years ago right?

    1. Re:450 years ago by wbr1 · · Score: 1

      You do realize that the accretion phase lasts hundreds of thousands of years right?

      --
      Silence is a state of mime.
    2. Re:450 years ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, observational astrophysicists are probably ignorant of the most basic aspects of relativistic kinematics. You should tell them.