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Scientists wonder about planet's location
Newcastle-Under-Lyme, England (UPI) Aug 27, 2009 British scientists are trying to determine why a Jupiter-style planet orbiting close to its sun has not spiraled into the star and burned up. Wasp-18b is so close to the star Wasp-18 that it completes its orbit in less than an Earth-length day, astrophysicists at Keele University in Staffordshire say. In an article in Nature, they say standard astronomical theories hold the planet should have a lifespan of less than a million years, while Wasp-18b is believed to be a billion years old. Astronomers have a similar problem in our solar system. Phobos, one of the moons of Mars, has an orbit only 5,000 miles up that should, according to theory, have led to a fatal collision with the planet long ago. Coel Hellier of Keele said there could be reasons for the anomaly. Wasp-18 might have less energy than it appears or the planet may have been spiraling inward and is a recent arrival at its currently observed position. Douglas Hamilton of the University of Maryland, who wrote a commentary on the article, said there is another possibility: "We're just missing something -- there is some property of stars or tides that we just don't understand." Share This Article With Planet Earth
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A Look Into The Hellish Cradles Of Suns And Solar SystemsGarching, Germany (ESO) Aug 20, 2009 New images released by ESO delve into the heart of a cosmic cloud, called RCW 38, crowded with budding stars and planetary systems. There, young, titanic stars bombard fledgling suns and planets with powerful winds and blazing light, helped in their devastating task by short-lived, massive stars that explode as supernovae. In some cases, this energetic onslaught cooks away the matter that may ev ... read more |
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