Latest Astronomical Discoveries Thread (WIP)

[adsii1970]

Here lately, there have been a lot of new discoveries that have come out that have shaped our understanding of space. So, in the spirit of discovery, it simply seemed that a single thread could be used as a repository where links could be shared.

So, in the spirit of what the intent of this thread is, I will share an interesting article that I found this morning in my news feed. The summary is nothing more than a cut and paste of the first part of the article that basically introduces the new find. I do ask that if you share an article, you'd follow this example so we can have some sort of continuity.

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Exoplanet has both molten and solid rock - http://www.ecanadanow.com/exoplanet-solid-molten-rock/97782/

Summary of the article:

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to produce a precision temperature (exo-)map of 55 Cancri e scientists were able to find that one hemisphere is almost completely molten rock, while the other half is almost completely solid. 55 Cancri e is approximately 40 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cancer.  According to report from Discovery, this is the first time such a map has been produced of such a small rocky world around 8-times the mass of Earth.

 

Edited April 2, 2016 by adsii1970

[fredinno]

8 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

 such a small rocky world around 8-times the mass of Earth.

Isn't 8x Earth Mass near the upper limit for a rocky planet? How is that 'small?'

[Atlas2342]

How bout gravitational waves?

https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/news/ligo20160211

(PS: is this considered recent?)

[fredinno]

7 minutes ago, Atlas2342 said:

How bout gravitational waves?

https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/news/ligo20160211

(PS: is this considered recent?)

There was already a thread on that...

[Atlas2342]

2 hours ago, fredinno said:

There was already a thread on that...

But isn't this a "repository where links could be shared" or am I mistaken of this thread's purpose?

 

12 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

Here lately, there have been a lot of new discoveries that have come out that have shaped our understanding of space. So, in the spirit of discovery, it simply seemed that a single thread could be used as a repository where links could be shared.

 

[adsii1970]

8 hours ago, fredinno said:

Isn't 8x Earth Mass near the upper limit for a rocky planet? How is that 'small?'

In all fairness, I didn't write the article but did cut and paste the first few paragraphs and formed them into a summary. With that said, it appears the earth is a runt of a mud ball within our universe. While the first post mentioned a planet that has the mass of eight earths, here's the giant of our galaxy. This rocky giant has a mass 17 times Earth. This, of course, would make 55 Cancri e a quaint, small world...

New Type of Massive, Rocky Planet Discovered in Our Universe: The Mega-Earth - http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/15138/20140602/new-type-massive-rocky-planet-discovered-universe-mega-earth.htm

Summary of the article:

There's a new type of planet in our universe--and it's a big one. Astronomers have discovered a rocky world weighing 17 times as much as Earth, making it much larger than the previously-known "super-Earth." As hefty as it is, this new type of planet is now being called a "mega-Earth." The newly discovered mega-Earth is called Kepler-10c. It's located about 560 light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco, and orbits its sunlike star once every 45 days.  

The planet was originally spotted by NASA's Kelpler spacecraft, which estimated that the planet had a diameter of about 18,000 miles, which is about 2.3 times as large as Earth. That's why at first, astronomers believed it to fall into a category of planets called mini-Neptunes, which have thick, gaseous envelopes. On closer examination, though, it turned out that this wasn't the case. The astronomers used the HARPS-North instrument in the Canary Islands to measure the mass of Kepler-10c. They found that it weighed 17 times as much as Earth, which is far more than expected. This meant that the planet had a dense composition of rocks and other solids. That's not all, either. The planet also didn't lose its atmosphere over time; instead, it's massive enough to hold onto it...

5 hours ago, Atlas2342 said:

But isn't this a "repository where links could be shared" or am I mistaken of this thread's purpose?

You've read correctly, just because an article was published even ten years ago does not mean the vast majority of those interested in astronomy have seen it (unless you read Astronomy magazine or subscribe to the JPL RSS thread...). Share away!

[Steel]

How about the paper from earlier this year putting forward more evidence for the existence of a ninth planet (although not a discovery at the moment, it's still interesting)?

Here on arXiv

[PB666]

20 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

Here lately, there have been a lot of new discoveries that have come out that have shaped our understanding of space. So, in the spirit of discovery, it simply seemed that a single thread could be used as a repository where links could be shared.

So, in the spirit of what the intent of this thread is, I will share an interesting article that I found this morning in my news feed. The summary is nothing more than a cut and paste of the first part of the article that basically introduces the new find. I do ask that if you share an article, you'd follow this example so we can have some sort of continuity.

----

Exoplanet has both molten and solid rock - http://www.ecanadanow.com/exoplanet-solid-molten-rock/97782/

Summary of the article:

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to produce a precision temperature (exo-)map of 55 Cancri e scientists were able to find that one hemisphere is almost completely molten rock, while the other half is almost completely solid. 55 Cancri e is approximately 40 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cancer.  According to report from Discovery, this is the first time such a map has been produced of such a small rocky world around 8-times the mass of Earth.

 

This is one third of the groups topics, of that the most important, you want to put it in a single thread . . . .what a bad idea.

 

[fredinno]

15 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

In all fairness, I didn't write the article but did cut and paste the first few paragraphs and formed them into a summary. With that said, it appears the earth is a runt of a mud ball within our universe. While the first post mentioned a planet that has the mass of eight earths, here's the giant of our galaxy. This rocky giant has a mass 17 times Earth. This, of course, would make 55 Cancri e a quaint, small world...

New Type of Massive, Rocky Planet Discovered in Our Universe: The Mega-Earth - http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/15138/20140602/new-type-massive-rocky-planet-discovered-universe-mega-earth.htm

Summary of the article:

There's a new type of planet in our universe--and it's a big one. Astronomers have discovered a rocky world weighing 17 times as much as Earth, making it much larger than the previously-known "super-Earth." As hefty as it is, this new type of planet is now being called a "mega-Earth." The newly discovered mega-Earth is called Kepler-10c. It's located about 560 light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco, and orbits its sunlike star once every 45 days.  

The planet was originally spotted by NASA's Kelpler spacecraft, which estimated that the planet had a diameter of about 18,000 miles, which is about 2.3 times as large as Earth. That's why at first, astronomers believed it to fall into a category of planets called mini-Neptunes, which have thick, gaseous envelopes. On closer examination, though, it turned out that this wasn't the case. The astronomers used the HARPS-North instrument in the Canary Islands to measure the mass of Kepler-10c. They found that it weighed 17 times as much as Earth, which is far more than expected. This meant that the planet had a dense composition of rocks and other solids. That's not all, either. The planet also didn't lose its atmosphere over time; instead, it's massive enough to hold onto it...

You've read correctly, just because an article was published even ten years ago does not mean the vast majority of those interested in astronomy have seen it (unless you read Astronomy magazine or subscribe to the JPL RSS thread...). Share away!

But really, a "runt" in my book is a mars-sized planet, a type of planet we've detected so few of, as they are too small for our telescopes. 8x Earth Mass is on the larger end of terrestrial planet.

20 hours ago, Atlas2342 said:

But isn't this a "repository where links could be shared" or am I mistaken of this thread's purpose?

 

 

It's just that there was already a thread on it