Sunday, October 20, 2019

Scientists puzzled by really big planet orbiting really little star - Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists are expressing surprise after discovering a solar system 30 light-years away from Earth that defies current understanding about planet formation, with a large Jupiter-like planet orbiting a diminutive star known as a red dwarf.

Stars generally are much bigger than even the largest planets that orbit them. But in this case, the star and the planet are not much different in size, the researchers said on Thursday.

The star, called GJ 3512, is about 12% the size of our sun, while the planet that orbits it has a mass of at least about half of Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet.

“Yes, an absolute surprise,” said astrophysicist Juan Carlos Morales of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia at the Institute of Space Sciences in Spain, who led the research published in the journal Science.

Publisher: U.S.
Date: 2019-09-26T22:37:49+0000
Author: Will Dunham
Twitter: @Reuters
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This may worth something:

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! Scientists puzzled by really big planet orbiting really ...news.yahoo.com / scientists - puzzled ...Scientists are expressing surprise after discovering a solar system 30 light-years away from Earth that defies current understanding about planet formation, with a large Jupiter-like planet orbiting a diminutive star known as a red dwarf. The star, called GJ 3512, is about 12% the size of our sun, while ...Scientists puzzled by really big ...!! These were later validated by measurements of background radiation.

Publisher: New Scientist
Author: Donna Lu
Twitter: @newscientist
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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! Scientists puzzled by really big planet orbiting really ...www.reuters.com ...Scientists puzzled by really big planet orbiting really little star. Will Dunham. 3 Min Read. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists are expressing surprise after discovering a solar system 30 light ...!! 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
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Planet 9 could be an ancient black hole orbiting the sun - Business Insider

At the edge of our solar system, some unknown object is manipulating the paths of chunks of ice as they circle the sun.

These objects' oval-shaped orbits all point in the same direction and tilt the same way, suggesting that an unseen force is herding them.

At first, scientists thought the culprit was a mysterious planet, which they dubbed Planet Nine (though some call it Planet X ). But a new paper suggests the gravitational pull could come from a primordial black hole — a type of small black hole that scientists have theorized formed during the Big Bang.

Although the existence of primordial black holes has not been confirmed, some scientists think the universe is teeming with them. If they exist, such black holes could make up the 80% of the universe that scientists can't see. They know this " dark matter " exists because its gravity pulls on things throughout the universe.

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Publisher: Business Insider
Date: 2019-09-27
Author: Morgan McFall Johnsen
Twitter: @SciInsider
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Many things are taking place:

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! Scientists puzzled by big planet orbiting little star - CNA ...planet-orbiting...Scientists puzzled by big planet orbiting little star An artistic impression of the gas giant planet GJ 3512b orbiting its red dwarf host star, released on Sep 26, 2019. (Guillem...!! 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! Scientists puzzled by really big planet orbiting really ...big...Scientists puzzled by really big planet orbiting really little star An artist's impression of the gas giant planet GJ 3512b orbiting its red dwarf host star, released on Sept 26, 2019 .!! The authors use simulations to show that such a large exoplanet around such a small star has implications for models of planet formation.

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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! Videos for Scientists Puzzled By 6:21 Scientists puzzled by discovery of new human organ called 'mes...Facebook!! 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
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SpaceX just filed a request to run 30,000 more Starlink satellites in orbit - MIT Technology

"In general there is an advantage to having more satellites if you're trying to provide high-bandwidth services with lots of coverage," says Brian Weeden, the director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation. Just as more mobile-phone towers can provide more coverage to customers, more satellites could connect more users to the internet. 

"That said," Weeden adds, "that number sounds really high, and it's hard to tell whether it's justified without seeing more details."

After a company makes a filing requesting spectrum, it has seven years to launch a satellite with the requested frequencies and must operate it for at least 90 days. Failure to accomplish these steps opens the spectrum rights up again.

Securing that much spectrum could involve a protracted legal battle, depending on whether frequencies have already been allocated for any space or terrestrial services. SpaceX may also be trying to get ahead of the competition and drown the ITU in more paperwork—especially since the ITU is expected to add more stringent spectrum reservation rules during a conference in a few weeks. Weeden also says the company may not be interested in actually launching 30,000 satellites: "I think this may be a case of SpaceX planning ahead and starting the request now for what is likely to be a very long and drawn-out process, and not necessarily indicative of what they actually plan to do." 

Publisher: MIT Technology Review
Date: 2019-10-16T08:30:02-04:00
Author: Neel V Patel
Twitter: @techreview
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