Thursday, November 13
It boggles my mind that this is not in the Top 5 stories in the New York Times. This is why you have to announce all truly remarkable scientific discoveries on a Monday, so it makes the Tuesday Science section.
For the first time there's a very convincing image of an extrasolar planet which would fit right in among the planets we've got here at home. It orbits the star Fomalhaut, a 2.3 solar mass star that's only a few hundred million years old, and will live for several hundred million more. The planet has the catchy name "Fomalhaut b" and is between about 3 and 0.4 Jupiter masses, so it should be pretty easy to spot, right?
Still looking? Think you got it? Look here to see if you were right. Hey, you didn't think the first picture would be pretty, did you? Here's a nice graphic that explains things. This astronomy is some detailed stuff. Sadly, I can't show it to you at Dearborn. This star lies in the Southern hemisphere. But it's only 25 light year from Earth, so who's up for an expedition?
For the first time there's a very convincing image of an extrasolar planet which would fit right in among the planets we've got here at home. It orbits the star Fomalhaut, a 2.3 solar mass star that's only a few hundred million years old, and will live for several hundred million more. The planet has the catchy name "Fomalhaut b" and is between about 3 and 0.4 Jupiter masses, so it should be pretty easy to spot, right?
Still looking? Think you got it? Look here to see if you were right. Hey, you didn't think the first picture would be pretty, did you? Here's a nice graphic that explains things. This astronomy is some detailed stuff. Sadly, I can't show it to you at Dearborn. This star lies in the Southern hemisphere. But it's only 25 light year from Earth, so who's up for an expedition?
