Tuesday, October 15, 2019

An unexpectedly enormous planet is orbiting a tiny star | New Scientist

An unexpectedly enormous planet is orbiting a tiny star | New Scientist

Astronomers have spotted an enormous planet orbiting a tiny star about 31 light years away. It is so big that it can’t have formed in the way that we think most planets do.

Juan Carlos Morales at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain and his colleagues spotted the planet, called GJ 3512 b, using a technique called the radial velocity method . This takes advantage of the fact that as a planet orbits its star, the star moves slightly in a way that allows astronomers to determine the planet's mass and orbit.

Using more than two years of observations with the CARMENES exoplanet survey in Spain, the researchers found that GJ 3512 b is at least 46 per cent as massive as Jupiter and orbits its star once every 204 days. The star itself is only 12 per cent as massive as our sun – or about 126 times the mass of Jupiter.

Publisher: New Scientist
Author: Leah Crane
Twitter: @newscientist
Reference: (Read more) Visit Source



Were you following this:

Nobel prize in physics for discovery of exoplanet orbiting a star | New Scientist

The Nobel prize in physics has been awarded to James Peebles, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for their contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth's place in the cosmos.

One half of the award went to James Peebles at Princeton University for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology, and the other half was jointly awarded to Michel Mayor at the University of Geneva and Didier Queloz at the universities of Geneva and Cambridge for their discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.

Peebles' research over two decades has formed the basis for our understanding of the universe's history after the big bang. He made theoretical predictions about the shape of the universe and the matter and energy that it contains! An unexpectedly enormous planet is orbiting a tiny star ...www.newscientist.com /article/2217808- ...A surprisingly huge world is orbiting a small star 31 light years away - and it probably formed differently from almost all of the other planets we have spotted!! These were later validated by measurements of background radiation.

Publisher: New Scientist
Author: Donna Lu
Twitter: @newscientist
Reference: (Read more) Visit Source



We Just Found Out That The Milky Way Has Been Repeatedly Stealing Smaller Galaxies

Orbiting is par for the course in our universe. The Earth orbits the Sun, the Moon orbits the Earth, and more than 50 galaxies orbit the Milky Way, the biggest of those being the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Now, new research indicates that at least six of the galaxies currently orbiting the Milky Way actually used to orbit the Large Magellanic Cloud directly - until our galaxy snatched them away .

A research team led by astronomers at the University of California, Riverside, made the new discovery - detailed in a study set for publication in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society - using data collected by the Gaia space telescope .

By comparing Gaia data on the movement of nearby galaxies with powerful simulations of galactic formation, the researchers identified four ultrafaint dwarf galaxies and two more classical dwarf galaxies they believe once orbited the Large Magellanic Cloud, but were ultimately stolen by the Milky Way's gravitational field.

Publisher: ScienceAlert
Author: Kristin Houser Futurism
Twitter: @ScienceAlert
Reference: (Read more) Visit Source



Next year, new space missions will test technologies to fix busted satellites in orbit - The Verge

Next year, the long-held dream of repairing satellites already in orbit around Earth will come a little closer to reality! An unexpectedly enormous planet is orbiting a tiny star ...a...Astronomers have spotted an enormous planet orbiting a tiny star about 31 light years away. It is so big that it can't have formed in the way that we think most planets do. Juan Carlos Morales at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain and his colleagues spotted the planet , called GJ 3512 b , using a technique called the radial velocity method .!! Two new missions — from military contractor Northrop Grumman and a startup called Astroscale — will send spacecraft into orbit to rendezvous with other vehicles zooming around Earth to see if it's possible for two satellites to delicately meet up with each other in space! Flipboard: An unexpectedly enormous planet is orbiting a ...flipboard.com/article/ ...star...An unexpectedly enormous planet is orbiting a tiny star | New Scientist. newscientist.com - By Leah Crane. Astronomers have spotted an enormous planet orbiting a tiny star about 31 light years away. It is so big that it can't have formed in the way that we …!! If successful, these missions could mark a big first step toward cleaning up Earth orbit and making it a more sustainable place.

Northrop Grumman and Astroscale are trying to prove out a concept known as satellite servicing, which isn't an option for satellite operators right now. Whenever an operator launches a satellite into orbit, there's really no way to reach that satellite again! An unexpectedly enormous planet is orbiting a tiny star ...star Boris Johnson 'faces Cabinet revolt on Brexit' as ministers say Dominic Cummings' aggressive plan has 'clearly failed' – amid warnings of riots if we don't leave the EU!! It's all on its own out in space! Flipboard: An unexpectedly enormous planet is orbiting a ...a-tiny...An unexpectedly enormous planet is orbiting a tiny star | New Scientist newscientist .com - By Leah Crane Astronomers have spotted an enormous planet orbiting a tiny star about 31 light years away.!! So if a satellite runs out of propellant, you can't refill the tank. Operators have to take the vehicle out of orbit and then replace it with another multimillion-dollar vehicle. Or if a satellite breaks, it'll simply remain in space as an uncooperative piece of junk that could pose a threat to other satellites nearby.

Publisher: The Verge
Date: 2019-10-14T11:29:06-04:00
Author: Loren Grush
Twitter: @verge
Reference: (Read more) Visit Source



Not to change the topic here:

Could a habitable planet orbit a supermassive black hole? - MIT Technology Review

Interstellar holds a special place for science fiction fans. The film's executive producer and scientific advisor was Kip Thorne, a Nobel Prize–winning physicist who vowed that nothing in the film would violate the laws of physics and that any wild speculation would stem from science.

Various planets orbit Gargantuan. So NASA sends a number of missions to survey the planets in the hope of finding one that is habitable.

Much has been written about the scientific accuracy of the film, its depiction of black holes, and so on, most of it full of praise. The physicist Michio Kaku said it was the gold standard by which future science fiction films will be judged.

But one question has yet to be addressed—is it possible for a habitable planet to orbit a supermassive black hole at all? And today, we get an answer thanks to the work of Jeremy Schnittman at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Publisher: MIT Technology Review
Date: 2019-10-09T11:26:49-04:00
Author: Emerging Technology from the arXiv
Twitter: @techreview
Reference: (Read more) Visit Source



A giant exoplanet orbiting a very-low-mass star challenges planet formation models | Science

M dwarfs, the most common type of star, are low-mass objects that emit most of their faint light in the near-infrared, making it difficult to detect any orbiting exoplanets. Morales et al. have observed the nearby M dwarf GJ 3512 in the optical and near-infrared (see the Perspective by Laughlin). Periodic variations in the star's radial velocity show that it hosts a gas giant exoplanet on an eccentric orbit. The authors use simulations to show that such a large exoplanet around such a small star has implications for models of planet formation.

* * *

Surveys have shown that super-Earth and Neptune-mass exoplanets are more frequent than gas giants around low-mass stars, as predicted by the core accretion theory of planet formation. We report the discovery of a giant planet around the very-low-mass star GJ 3512, as determined by optical and near-infrared radial-velocity observations. The planet has a minimum mass of 0.46 Jupiter masses, very high for such a small host star, and an eccentric 204-day orbit. Dynamical models show that the high eccentricity is most likely due to planet-planet interactions. We use simulations to demonstrate that the GJ 3512 planetary system challenges generally accepted formation theories, and that it puts constraints on the planet accretion and migration rates. Disk instabilities may be more efficient in forming planets than previously thought.

Publisher: Science
Date: 2019-09-27
Reference: (Read more) Visit Source



Happening on Twitter

No comments:

Post a Comment