Science > Physics > Astronomers Discover Beginnings of 'Mini' Solar System
| Topic: |
Science > Physics |
| User: |
"Sam Wormley" |
| Date: |
07 Feb 2005 10:47:53 PM |
| Object: |
Astronomers Discover Beginnings of 'Mini' Solar System |
MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Whitney Clavin (818) 354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Press Release: 2005-022
February 7, 2005
Astronomers Discover Beginnings of 'Mini' Solar System
Moons circle planets, and planets circle stars. Now,
astronomers have learned that planets may also circle
celestial bodies almost as small as planets.
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has spotted a dusty disc of
planet-building material around an extraordinarily low-mass
brown dwarf, or "failed star." The brown dwarf, called OTS
44, is only 15 times the mass of Jupiter. Previously, the
smallest brown dwarf known to host a planet-forming disc was
25 to 30 times more massive than Jupiter.
The finding will ultimately help astronomers better
understand how and where planets - including rocky ones
resembling our own - form.
"There may be a host of miniature solar systems out there,
in which planets orbit brown dwarfs," said Dr. Kevin Luhman,
lead author of the new study from the Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass. "This leads to all
sorts of new questions, like 'Could life exist on such
planets?' or 'What do you call a planet circling a planet-
sized body? A moon or a planet? '"
Brown dwarfs are something of misfits in the astronomy
world. These cool orbs of gas have been called both failed
stars and super planets. Like planets, they lack the mass to
ignite and produce starlight. Like stars, they are often
found alone in space, with no parent body to orbit.
"In this case, we are seeing the ingredients for planets
around a brown dwarf near the dividing line between planets
and stars. This raises the tantalizing possibility of planet
formation around objects that themselves have planetary
masses," said Dr. Giovanni Fazio, an astronomer at the
Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and a co-author
of the new study.
The results were presented today at the Planet Formation and
Detection meeting at the Aspen Center for Physics, Aspen,
Colo., and will be published in the Feb. 10th issue of The
Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Planet-forming, or protoplanetary, discs are the precursors
to planets. Astronomers speculate that the disc circling OTS
44 has enough mass to make a small gas giant planet and a
few Earth-sized, rocky ones. This begs the question: Could a
habitable planet like Earth sustain life around a brown
dwarf?
"If life did exist in this system, it would have to
constantly adjust to the dwindling temperatures of a brown
dwarf," said Luhman. "For liquid water to be present, the
planet would have to be much closer to the brown dwarf than
Earth is to our Sun."
"It's exciting to speculate about the possibilities for life
in such as system, of course at this point we are only
beginning to understand the unusual circumstances under
which planets arise," he added.
Brown dwarfs are rare and difficult to study due to their
dim light. Though astronomers recently reported what may be
the first-ever image of a planet around a brown dwarf called
2M1207, not much is understood about the planet-formation
process around these odd balls of gas. Less is understood
about low-mass brown dwarfs, of which only a handful are
known.
OTS 44 was first discovered about six months ago by Luhman
and his colleagues using the Gemini Observatory in Chile.
The object is located 500 light-years away in the Chamaeleon
constellation. Later, the team used Spitzer's highly
sensitive infrared eyes to see the dim glow of OTS 44's
dusty disc. These observations took only 20 seconds. Longer
searches with Spitzer could reveal discs around brown dwarfs
below10 Jupiter masses.
Other authors of this study include Dr. Paola D'Alessia of
the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico; and Drs. Nuria
Calvet, Lori Allen, Lee Hartmann, Thomas Megeath and Philip
Myers of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages
the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science
Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Science operations are
conducted at the Spitzer Science Center, Pasadena, Calif.
JPL is a division of Caltech. The infrared array camera,
which spotted the protoplanetary disc around OTS 44, was
built by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.;
its development was led by Fazio.
Artist's conceptions and additional information about the
Spitzer Space Telescope are available at
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu.
.
|
|
| User: "starburst" |
|
| Title: Re: Astronomers Discover Beginnings of 'Mini' Solar System |
08 Feb 2005 10:06:31 AM |
|
|
A goofy question that's way over my head, but if it turns out that these
exist commonly, would that mean that the estimates of the total amount
of matter in the universe will have to be revised upward? With
consequences for big bang / big crunch predictions?
Sam Wormley wrote:
Astronomers Discover Beginnings of 'Mini' Solar System
Moons circle planets, and planets circle stars. Now,
astronomers have learned that planets may also circle
celestial bodies almost as small as planets.
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has spotted a dusty disc of
planet-building material around an extraordinarily low-mass
brown dwarf, or "failed star." The brown dwarf, called OTS
44, is only 15 times the mass of Jupiter. Previously, the
smallest brown dwarf known to host a planet-forming disc was
25 to 30 times more massive than Jupiter.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Hilton Evans" |
|
| Title: Re: Astronomers Discover Beginnings of 'Mini' Solar System |
08 Feb 2005 04:47:21 PM |
|
|
"starburst" <chills@deathtospammers.utexas.edu> wrote in message news:cuao14$o8h$1@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu...
A goofy question that's way over my head, but if it turns out that these
exist commonly, would that mean that the estimates of the total amount
of matter in the universe will have to be revised upward? With
consequences for big bang / big crunch predictions?
Not really. Estimates of matter in the universe
come from effects of gravity on huge distributions
of matter. E.g. the velocities of stars orbiting
galaxies.
--
Hilton Evans
---------------------------------------------------------------
Lon -71° 04' 35.3"
Lat +42° 11' 06.7"
---------------------------------------------------------------
Webcam Astroimaging
http://home.earthlink.net/~hiltonevans/astroimaging/astroimaging.htm
---------------------------------------------------------------
ChemPen Chemical Structure Software
http://www.chempensoftware.com
.
|
|
|
|
| User: "canopus56" |
|
| Title: Re: Astronomers Discover Beginnings of 'Mini' Solar System |
08 Feb 2005 03:44:55 PM |
|
|
starburst asked:
[W]ould that mean that the estimates of the total amount
of matter in the universe will have to be revised upward?
It probably does not have implications for the total amount of matter
in the universe. It does have implications for Drake's Equation
estimating th probability of extra-solar life -
N = N* fp ne fl fi fc fL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation
http://www.pbs.org/lifebeyondearth/listening/drake.html
- Peace Canopus56
.
|
|
|
| User: "Rod Diedrich" |
|
| Title: Re: Astronomers Discover Beginnings of 'Mini' Solar System |
08 Feb 2005 04:24:04 PM |
|
|
If we can identify em, we'll tax em!
Regards, Rod
"canopus56" <canopus56@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1107899095.168161.298790@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
starburst asked:
[W]ould that mean that the estimates of the total amount
of matter in the universe will have to be revised upward?
It probably does not have implications for the total amount of matter
in the universe. It does have implications for Drake's Equation
estimating th probability of extra-solar life -
N = N* fp ne fl fi fc fL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation
http://www.pbs.org/lifebeyondearth/listening/drake.html
- Peace Canopus56
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
