A look at some newly discovered and highly interesting exoplanets.

[Aethon]

A super Saturn, with a ring system larger than it's parent star.

http://www.universetoday.com/118500/super-saturn-has-an-enormous-ring-system-and-maybe-even-exomoons/

and the oldest planetary system discovered so far at 11 billion years old. Kepler 444 is 25% smaller than our sun and lies 117 light years away. It has at least 5 rocky planets Venus sized or smaller which are almost as old as the Universe itself. Interesting implications for life in the Cosmos.

http://www.space.com/28386-ancient-alien-planets-discovery-kepler-444.html

[tajampi]

Wait, those rings are bigger than the sun

Awesome, now to think how were these rings formed...

Cheers!

[GoSlash27]

I've been following the list of earth- analogue exoplanets, and it seems like every time I turn around there's new ones on the list.

http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog

I'd love to send probes to explore them, but the distances are way beyond our ability.

Best,

-Slashy

[ZetaX]

Wait, those rings are bigger than the sun

Saturn's Phoboe ring is bigger than the sun by a factor of 6 to 20. Anyway, that new ring planet's ring system is much bigger with a diameter claimed to be about 258 times the sun's.

[Bill Phil]

Saturn's Phoboe ring is bigger than the sun by a factor of 6 to 20. Anyway, that new ring planet's ring system is much bigger with a diameter claimed to be about 258 times the sun's.

Yeah... I remembered something about one of Saturn's rings having a diameter greater than the sun's.

[78stonewobble]

Nice links and pictures. Thanks

[Aethon]

I've been following the list of earth- analogue exoplanets,

Best,

-Slashy

Slash, If you'd like to participate in a more hands on way, you should check out one of my favorite programs, the Citizen Science group Zooniverse.

https://www.zooniverse.org/

Help scientists comb through mountains of data in any one of twenty five different subjects from biology-survey animals with remote cameras in Africa, to space- hunt planets lurking in the raw Kepler data, to physics- comb through data from the LHC after the Higgs boson, to archaeology- use your superior pattern recognition skills to translate ancient texts better than a computer can- everyone is guaranteed to find something there they will enjoy and YOU can actually contribute to science.

You may not be able to see this link unless you're a member, but here's one of my favorites from the Galaxy Zoo, where you help identify Galaxy types from the enormous amount of data acquired from wide field surveys, S(loan) D(igital) S(ky) S(urvey), Hubble data, and the U(nited) K(ingdom) I(nfrared) T(elescope).

http://www.galaxyzoo.org/#/examine/AGZ0002nrt

Or even discover something unknown to science, similar to what happened to Hanny van Arckel who wondered what the green thing was in this image she was given to analyze one day, and began asking around the forums if anyone knew what it was. Even the project scientists were stumped. It's now called Hannys' Voorwerp.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/22apr_zooniverse/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanny%27s_Voorwerp

WARNING: Zooniverse may cut into your KSP play time. Could lead to IRL feelings of accomplishment. Leaves a sciency aftertaste.

[Sirrobert]

How long does that 11 billion old star have to live?

[78stonewobble]

How long does that 11 billion old star have to live?

Interesting question. I've allways found it fascinating how much mass affect the lifetime and luminosity of stars.

Red dwarves that can supposedly live up to a trillion years for a star with 20 percent of the solar mass of the sun(well 560 billion years according to the link below). Possibly up to 10 trillion years for a borderline star at 7,5 percent of the suns mass.

http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/M/Main+Sequence+Lifetime

...

Makes me ponder how long R136a1, supposedly the most massive known star at 265 solar masses, has before something interesting happens. It might allready have had it's lifetime extended by merging with other stars, since supposedly stars heavier than 150 solar masses cannot form by regular gravitational collapse of a gascloud.

Well it's off topic anyway

[Tommygun]

So I'm guessing that Super Saturn is ether in a very young system or a couple of gas giants had a really bad encounter very near it.

[Armchair Rocket Scientist]

So I'm guessing that Super Saturn is ether in a very young system or a couple of gas giants had a really bad encounter very near it.

Yeah, it's a very young system. And apparently there are gaps in the rings which may indicate moons forming.

While this planet is apparently very large, and may even be a brown dwarf, this suggests that Jupiter and Saturn began life with accretion disks of a similar size.

[GoSlash27]

Slash, If you'd like to participate in a more hands on way, you should check out one of my favorite programs, the Citizen Science group Zooniverse.

https://www.zooniverse.org/

Help scientists comb through mountains of data in any one of twenty five different subjects from biology-survey animals with remote cameras in Africa, to space- hunt planets lurking in the raw Kepler data, to physics- comb through data from the LHC after the Higgs boson, to archaeology- use your superior pattern recognition skills to translate ancient texts better than a computer can- everyone is guaranteed to find something there they will enjoy and YOU can actually contribute to science.

You may not be able to see this link unless you're a member, but here's one of my favorites from the Galaxy Zoo, where you help identify Galaxy types from the enormous amount of data acquired from wide field surveys, S(loan) D(igital) S(ky) S(urvey), Hubble data, and the U(nited) K(ingdom) I(nfrared) T(elescope).

http://www.galaxyzoo.org/#/examine/AGZ0002nrt

Or even discover something unknown to science, similar to what happened to Hanny van Arckel who wondered what the green thing was in this image she was given to analyze one day, and began asking around the forums if anyone knew what it was. Even the project scientists were stumped. It's now called Hannys' Voorwerp.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1102/hannyVWRP_hst.jpg

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/22apr_zooniverse/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanny%27s_Voorwerp

WARNING: Zooniverse may cut into your KSP play time. Could lead to IRL feelings of accomplishment. Leaves a sciency aftertaste.

This rocks! Have some rep.

Thanks,

-Slashy

[Techpriest93]

So I'm guessing that Super Saturn is ether in a very young system or a couple of gas giants had a really bad encounter very near it.

Big Planet: "I want you. Around me"

Smaller Planet: "Nooooooooooo!"

[problemecium]

To borrow a quote: There is no Duna, there is only Jool.

...we should name that planet Jool. Unless it's red, in which case we should name it Smaug the Unassessably Ringy, chiefest and greatest of calamitanets.

[Aethon]

This rocks! Have some rep.

Thanks,

-Slashy

Remember to join or your work doesn't count- I find it handy to keep the tutorials open in another window.

Here's a new Zooniverse discovery pretty well kicked around on the Forums but hitting the press yesterday:

We call them.... Yellow balls...

http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/spitzer/citizen-scientists-lead-astronomers-to-mystery-objects-in-space/index.html#.VMr7v2jF-Yc

[Tommygun]

Wow, I never thought a gas nebula could look evil.

[LordFerret]

Keep in mind these images are in infrared with color enhancement, that most of the imagery you see is such or false color or color enhanced along various light wavelengths... to bring out the contrasting features.

And then there's this from the other day, something I'll be following... a disturbance in Saturn's outer-edge A ring, possible birth of a new moon.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-112