Hubble Finds Jupiter Sized Planet that Orbits Its Star in 10 Hours!

"New Planets Astound Astronomers in Speed and Distance

By DENNIS OVERBYE
Published: October 5, 2006

In the quest for other worlds beyond the solar system, astronomers keep
turning up planetary systems with curiouser and curiouser traits.
Yesterday, astronomers who use the Hubble Space Telescope announced
that they had done it again, this time locating the fastest moving and
most distant ever found.

Among a batch of new planets found by training the Hubble telescope on
a small patch of sky far across the galaxy in Sagittarius are as many
as five that orbit their home stars in less than a day.

One planet orbits its star, a so-called dwarf slightly smaller than the
Sun, in only 10 hours, "the likes of which we had never seen
before," Kailash Sahu of the Space Telescope Science Institute,
leader of the team that did the work, said, calling the results "a
big surprise."

By comparison, Mercury, swiftest in the our solar system, races around
the Sun once every 88 days.

The new planets, all roughly the size of Jupiter, orbit so near their
stars that they are heated to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, said Dr. Sahu,
who noted that if their home stars were any bigger, the planets would
simply evaporate.

The astronomers reported their results at a news conference at NASA
headquarters in Washington, and their findings will be published in the
journal Nature today.

The results, astronomers said, confirm that planets occur across the
galaxy with the same frequency that they do in the neighborhood around
the Sun.

"We've learned now that planets are everywhere," said Alan P.
Boss, a theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, who was not
part of the team.

"We're beginning to be able to calculate how many Earths there are,
how many planets are habitable, if not inhabited," Dr. Boss added.

More than 200 planets have now been found around other stars.

In all, the project - known as Sagittarius Window Eclipsing
Extrasolar Planet Search, or Sweeps - found 16 possible planets by
monitoring the light from 180,000 stars over seven days, looking for
the periodic dimming caused by the passage of a planet. The astronomers
have calculated by statistical methods that at least seven of the
bodies are actually planets.

So far, two have been confirmed as planets by measuring the wobbles in
the starlight caused by the passing masses, using the giant eight-meter
Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory on Cerro
Paranal, in Chile.

Dr. Sahu said those findings gave him confidence that at least a large
fraction of the 16, if not all, are really planets.

Dr. Boss noted that astronomers now had found in the Milky Way all the
types of planets that are in our solar system: gas giants like Jupiter,
ice giants like Neptune and rocky "super-Earths" orbiting other
stars. "Everything we were looking for," he said, "just not in
the arrangement we were looking for."

As potential planets are found in increasing numbers, Dr. Boss said,
the odds increase that planets and planetary systems like Earth's
would be found.

Mario Livio, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute and
a member of Dr. Sahu's team, said, "There are literally billions of
planets in our galaxy." "

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/05/sc...4 &ei=5087%0A


Double-A

These new findings seem to indicate that the order of a star's planets is
not dependent on their material makeup. For years, astronomers were
convinced that rocky planets were always closer to their star than their
bigger, gaseous brothers and that the mostly icy planets (ooops, KBOs) orbit
at the fringes.

What is really puzzling is the tone of surprise emanating from these
discovery reports, almost as if the existence of extra solar planets is a
totally unexpected miracle. Looking at our own solar system, with 9 (or 8 to
11) planets and a plethora of moons (I think they are in the hundreds by
now), how can anyone even be surprised that there are other planets out
there. And yes, they will almost all be different from the norm, as it is
presently defined by our knowledge of our own back yard, but there will be
many more surprises in the future. I don't remember who coined the phrase:
"the Universe is weirder than we can imagine", but ultimately, he'll be
proven right. Planets orbiting stars and moons orbiting planets will
ultimately prove to be the rule, rather than the exception.



"Double-A" wrote in message
oups.com...

"New Planets Astound Astronomers in Speed and Distance

By DENNIS OVERBYE
Published: October 5, 2006

In the quest for other worlds beyond the solar system, astronomers keep
turning up planetary systems with curiouser and curiouser traits.
Yesterday, astronomers who use the Hubble Space Telescope announced
that they had done it again, this time locating the fastest moving and
most distant ever found.

Among a batch of new planets found by training the Hubble telescope on
a small patch of sky far across the galaxy in Sagittarius are as many
as five that orbit their home stars in less than a day.

One planet orbits its star, a so-called dwarf slightly smaller than the
Sun, in only 10 hours, "the likes of which we had never seen
before," Kailash Sahu of the Space Telescope Science Institute,
leader of the team that did the work, said, calling the results "a
big surprise."

By comparison, Mercury, swiftest in the our solar system, races around
the Sun once every 88 days.

The new planets, all roughly the size of Jupiter, orbit so near their
stars that they are heated to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, said Dr. Sahu,
who noted that if their home stars were any bigger, the planets would
simply evaporate.

The astronomers reported their results at a news conference at NASA
headquarters in Washington, and their findings will be published in the
journal Nature today.

The results, astronomers said, confirm that planets occur across the
galaxy with the same frequency that they do in the neighborhood around
the Sun.

"We've learned now that planets are everywhere," said Alan P.
Boss, a theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, who was not
part of the team.

"We're beginning to be able to calculate how many Earths there are,
how many planets are habitable, if not inhabited," Dr. Boss added.

More than 200 planets have now been found around other stars.

In all, the project - known as Sagittarius Window Eclipsing
Extrasolar Planet Search, or Sweeps - found 16 possible planets by
monitoring the light from 180,000 stars over seven days, looking for
the periodic dimming caused by the passage of a planet. The astronomers
have calculated by statistical methods that at least seven of the
bodies are actually planets.

So far, two have been confirmed as planets by measuring the wobbles in
the starlight caused by the passing masses, using the giant eight-meter
Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory on Cerro
Paranal, in Chile.

Dr. Sahu said those findings gave him confidence that at least a large
fraction of the 16, if not all, are really planets.

Dr. Boss noted that astronomers now had found in the Milky Way all the
types of planets that are in our solar system: gas giants like Jupiter,
ice giants like Neptune and rocky "super-Earths" orbiting other
stars. "Everything we were looking for," he said, "just not in
the arrangement we were looking for."

As potential planets are found in increasing numbers, Dr. Boss said,
the odds increase that planets and planetary systems like Earth's
would be found.

Mario Livio, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute and
a member of Dr. Sahu's team, said, "There are literally billions of
planets in our galaxy." "

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/05/sc...4 &ei=5087%0A


Double-A