Some pictures defy a headline.
See this? It's the very first picture of a planet beyond our solar system. And if that doesn't make even a small shiver run up the back of your spine, you're more clueless than your high school science teacher said you were.
Guys, that's another planet outside the Milky Way.
Earlier today, NASA released this image at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in San Diego. They officially classify it still as a "planet candidate", but that's just scientific lingo for "we're not 100% sure yet, but we'll stake our pocket protectors on it being a planet". If and/or when the confirmation is made, it will represent a landmark in astronomy. It will mean we're one step closer to finding and photographing Earth-like planets around other stars.
It will mean we're one step closer to those planets George Lucas has been talking about for years.
European astronomers discovered the planet last year using a ground-based telescope, but needed Hubble's orbital eye to provide a clearer picture. The planet candidate appears to orbit a failed star known as a brown dwarf. The Europeans couldn't tell if the planet and its companion star were traveling through space together or if they were companions only in the telescope lense. Hubble proved they are not only close but gravitationally bound to one another.
The duo is roughly 225 light-years away from your beer coozy. The brown dwarf apparently didn't have enough mass to trigger the fusion needed to shine like a normal star, but it's still 25 times more massive than Jupiter. Additional confirmation will be made in April when Hubble can snap a few more pictures of the planet presumably moving along in its orbit.
And the name given this potentially historical find? 2MASSWJ 1207334-393254 (2M1207). No, we're not making that up. Kinda makes you wish they'd call the damn thing Tattooine or Hoth, huh?
posted by TheBDS at 4:58 PM
3 Comments:
This much time on the blog? That's the problem. I haven't spent much time at all on it. If I did, this blog would be an actual web site.
The Poker Party post was pulled because 50% of the intended audience is watching hula dancers twirl tiki torches on fire 'bout now and downing overpriced drinks complete with those little umbrellas. I wouldn't be surprised if the Poker Party post (and subsequent discussion) returns when they do.
"Guys, that's another planet outside the Milky Way."
I don't know if you were being literal or just figurative with that one line, but "225 light-years away" is not outside of the Milky Way, the Milky Way being, according to NASA, roughly 100,000 light years in diametre. Meanwhile, the closest galaxy, which is, according to NASA again, the Saggitarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, is "only" 80,000 light years away. which is, if I'm reading these sites correctly, less than the diametre of the Milky Way itself.
Actually, after doing that little bit of research on the NASA site, that's news to me. I always thought of galaxies as being like little spirals in a huge mass of dark nothing. I didn't know that there were other galaxies that were relatively "close" to us. But I think it's still too far for even the sharpest telescopes to make out any details of stars that far. But I'm talking out of my ass because I don't really know much of anything about space optics. Maybe you meant 225,000 light years away instead of just 225 light years like you wrote, in which case, yes, it would be outside our galaxy.
No, we don't know who the hell you are, but you're right. In the age of Drudge and Fox, we were in such a hurry to post this incredible discovery that we screwed up. That, and we had porn to surf before the day was done.
It's the first known image of a planet outside our SOLAR SYSTEM. Not galaxy. That makes numbers like 225-light years away much more plausible.
So thanks for the correction and, more importantly, for not blasting us as drooling idiots. Your tact is to be commended. But your choice of blogs isn't. If you're actually spending time on this one, you need to get out more.
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