Most extreme planets yet

#space #planet #star #hottest #coldest #biggest #smallest #oldest #youngest

Our Universe is a big chunk of stars and planets with some pretty extreme environments and weather. Here is a brief list:

Hottest Planet: Having a temperature of over 4,300 degree Celsius, KELT-9b is a Jupiter-type gas giant planet that is so close to it’s star that it only takes 1.5 days to complete 1 revolution. (Earth takes 1 year = 365.25 days)

Coldest Planet: Having a temperature near absolute zero, OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb is the coldest planet at – 223 degree Celsius. The planet is 5.5 times the mass of Earth and sometimes also referred to Hoth from Star Wars franchise.

Biggest Planet: The planet DENIS-P J082303.1-491201 b, has a mass 28.5 times that of Jupiter. It is often debated whether to categorize it as a star or planet. However, it revolves around a brown dwarf star.

Smallest Planet: Kepler-37b is considered the smallest planet, having a size smaller than Mercury and slightly larger than Moon. The planet lies very close to its star and is too hot to support liquid water.

Oldest Planet: At 12.7 billion years, PSR B1620-26 b is the oldest planet. It is 2.5 times the mass of Jupiter. Considering the universe is 13.8 billion years old, the planet is only a billion years younger.

Youngest Planet: V830 Tauri is a planet that has only been there for 2 million years. The planet is 3/4th the mass of Jupiter and still seems to be growing by frequent collision, making it unsafe.

Planet with the Worst Weather: Since lack of technology prevents us from seeing the weather of planets outside our solar system, Venus is the planet with most extreme weather with temperatures ranging to 462 degree Celsius, and hurricane speeds at 360 km/hr. The planet is made up of 95% Carbon dioxide.

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This is incredible. There are planet with such varied mass, temperatures and weather. We are but a small dot in the universe.

Mass of the star via Einstein’s Theory

#AlbertEinstein #Star #space #EinsteinTheory #Mass #Relativity #LawsofPhysics

Albert Einstein published his theory of relativity in 1915 that the speed of light in a vacuum is unaffected by the motion of all observers and that the laws of physics are the same for all observers not moving or accelerating.

The theory allowed scientists and researchers to predict black holes, and even the behavior of planets in orbit. The theory explains that when we try to measure how fast something is moving, that speed can only be determined in relation to another object’s speed.

Einstein also predicted that the light from one star can be bent by the gravity from another star, and this will help us find the mass of the star with bent light. This theory was proved, after more than a hundred years with the help of Hubble Telescope. It is hard to find stars with the perfect alignment that can create an Einstein ring, a circle of light formed by one star passing in front of another star from our vantage point.

With the help of our Sun, scientists were able to measure White dwarf Stein 2051B mass as 68% of that of our Sun.

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That is amazing. Going to such lengths for Einstein’s theory, these scientists and researchers do have a passion for Physics.

The new Hottest Planet discovered

#Exoplanet #space #KELT9b #star #planet #hottestPlanet #4300degrees

Exoplanet KELT-9b is the hottest planet discovered as of now, reaching temperatures as high as 4,300 degrees Celsius, almost 4/5ths that of the Sun. The hottest planet in our Solar System, Venus, reaches a maximum of about 460 degree Celsius. The planet is 650 light years away from the Earth.

KELT-9b is considered a hybrid between a star and a planet in regards to his atmosphere, however considering the planet does not have a nuclear core that fuses hydrogen into helium, it is not considered a star.

The planet is so close to it’s star that it only takes 1.5 days for a complete orbit. The Earth takes 365.25 days to complete one orbit around it’s star, Sun. Another strange thing is that KELT-9b, orbits it’s star around the poles, rather than at the Equator and does not rotate on its axis.

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We often try to find exoplanets that are habitable. In turn, often missing out these high temperature planets with their weird characteristics. This is interesting and let’s us know just how far can things go in this universe.

Learning more about Neutron Stars

#NASA #SpaceX #star #Sun #NeutronStar #Xrays #space #NICER

The Space X Dragon cargo capsule will reach the International Space Station by Saturday, which is carrying an unusual telescope designed to look at neutron stars. A neutron star has a diameter of 15-16 kms, and has a mass of more than twice the mass of the Sun. It has such high density that, one teaspoon of the star will weigh 10 million tons.

NICER, a Neutron Star Composition Explorer, is not an optical telescope. Rather it is a one meter cube made with solid aluminum. The face has 56 holes drilled, and the instrument has its own array of special lenses that deflect x-rays and focus them towards sensors fixed on the inner wall.

The lenses are 24 concentric aluminum cylinders, coated with a thin layer of gold, and bent very slightly. X-rays are used to study the neutron star because the neutron star is glowing in x-ray light, and in order to look at the surface of the star for interior make up.

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Having twice the mass of Sun within a ball of diameter 16 kilometers. That is incredible, and very dense. It will be interesting to know more about neutron stars for sure. Does it happen to every star when it cools off and compresses?

The strange star in Constellation Cygnus

#space #alien #Cygnus #star #KIC8462852 #1300LightYears #DysonSphere

A yellow-white dwarf star called KIC 8462852 flickers often, and its brightness can dip as much as 22 percent. The star is located 1,300 light years away in the Constellation Cygnus. Some believe that it might be surrounded by a swarm of solar panels constructed by ancient alien civilization, the dimming caused from a Dyson Sphere.

However, the possibility of the alien theory is highly unlikely. Considering the star is 1,300 light years away, i.e. to say that the image of the star we are receiving on our telescope is 1,300 years old (around in the Eight century).

Scientists saw the flicker happening in real time last week through the Kepler space telescope. They included a number of telescopes that operate at a variety of ranges across the light spectrum. This will allow them to take specta, that is, analyze the wavelengths of light emitted by the star to figure out what it’s made of and what is blocking its light.

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Although it is unlikely, there might be a 1% chance that it’s due to alien civilization. If we are seeing this image 1,300 years later. What would they be seeing on Earth right now, considering the 1,300 years difference works both ways — 8th century AD Earth.

Atmosphere around Earth-like planet.

#Atmosphere #planet #Earth #habitable #star #GJ1132b #life #space

A planet 1.4 times the size of Earth known as GJ 1132b, is 39 light years away. It was observed that this planet is cloaked in a thick layer of gases which can be either water or methane or a mixture of both. However, the surface temperature of this planet is 370 degree Celsius, which makes it unlikely to sustain any life.

The planet lies in the Vela constellation in the southern hemisphere, and the star that this planet orbits is much smaller and cooler than our sun. Considering the high surface temperature, the distance between the star and this planet must be really small.

Researchers believe that even though life might not seem possible on GJ 1132b, they have been able to conclude that planets around low mass stars can have atmospheres, and because of the large possibility of such stars, there can be as many opportunities of finding a habitable planet or one with extra-terrestrial life forms.

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This makes it a step closer for finding a suitable location for humans to survive!

A solar system, similar but much older than ours

L2 Puppis, a solar system about 208 light-years away from Earth. An international team of astronomers is using the ALMA radio telescope to study this solar system.

The L2 Puppis is about 10 billion years old, about twice the age of our Sun. Five billion years ago, the star was an almost perfect twin of our Sun as it is today, with the same mass. One third of this mass was lost during the evolution of the star.

Professor Leen Decin of KY Leuven Institute of Astronomy said that our Sun will become a giant red star and will be 100 times bigger than its current size, in a few billion years. This will probably lead to the destruction of closer planets like Mercury and Venus, though what will happen to the Earth is not yet known.

After that the sun will also experience an intense mass loss, which will reduce it to the size of the Earth but will be much heavier. This will probably happen about 7 billion years from now. Read the full article here!