BS: The stars, like dust...

Subject: RE: BS: The stars, like dust...
From: Don Firth
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 06:39 PM

Interesting to note how many stars on that list are G-type main-sequence. The sun is a G2 main-sequence star. The way stars and planetary systems are formed, it would be unusual for a G-type star not to have a family of planets. And just statistically, a lot of planets will be in the "temperate zone" (water in a liquid state).

It's that fact than keeps SETI enthusiasts supplied with vitamins!

(Me, too!)

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: The stars, like dust...
From: beardedbruce
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 04:04 PM

http://www.princeton.edu/~willman/planetary_systems/

Subject: RE: BS: The stars, like dust...
From: beardedbruce
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 04:01 PM

Tools: Save | Print | E-mail | Most Popular
Scientists find most Earth-like planet yet
POSTED: 1:12 p.m. EDT, April 25, 2007
Story Highlights• NEW: Planet could conceivably house life outside our solar system
• NEW: Discovery a "significant step" on way to finding possible life in universe
• NEW: Planet, dubbed 581 c, orbits red dwarf star Gliese 581
• NEW: Newly found planet full of liquid water, scientist believes
Adjust font size:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- European astronomers have found the most Earth-like planet outside our solar system, and here's what it might be like to live there:

The "sun" wouldn't burn brightly. It would hang close, large and red in the sky, glowing faintly like a charcoal ember. And it probably would never set if you lived on the sunny side of the planet.

You could have a birthday party every 13 days because that's how fast this new planet circles its sun-like star. But watch the cake -- you'd weigh a whole lot more than you do on Earth.

You might be able to keep your current wardrobe. The temperature in this alien setting will likely be a lot like Earth's -- not too hot, not too cold.

[edited for length]

Subject: RE: BS: The stars, like dust...
From: Sorcha
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 03:59 PM

They've also found an 'earth like' planet....with a red sun. Darkover????

Subject: RE: BS: The stars, like dust...
From: beardedbruce
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 02:55 PM

Launch window doesnot open until 16:23 EDT...

Subject: RE: BS: The stars, like dust...
From: Sorcha
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 02:53 PM

Bruce, methinks thee hast too much time on thy hands.....grin!

Subject: RE: BS: The stars, like dust...
From: Amos
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 12:44 PM

ABsolutely effing BYOODIful, BB!! Thanks a million!!


A

Subject: RE: BS: The stars, like dust...
From: beardedbruce
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 12:09 PM

(from that site:)

" Eta Carinae, the most energetic star in the nebula, was one of the brightest stars in the sky in the 1830s, but then faded dramatically."

After John Keats died ( 1821), you notice...

Subject: RE: BS: The stars, like dust...
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 12:05 PM

Or just look here.

Subject: BS: The stars, like dust...
From: beardedbruce
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 11:59 AM

Dazzling image captures violent birth of stars
POSTED: 11:17 a.m. EDT, April 25, 2007

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A dazzlingly detailed image released by NASA scientists on Tuesday shows the chaotic conditions in which stars are born and die -- in this case in a huge nebula in another neighborhood of our Milky Way galaxy.

The image, made from a series of 48 shots taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in spring and summer of 2005, depicts star birth in a new level of detail.

It provides a view spanning a distance of 50 light years across of the Carina Nebula. A nebula is an immense cloud of hot interstellar gas and dust.

This messy and chaotic region includes at least a dozen brilliant stars estimated to be perhaps 50 to 100 times the mass of the sun, astronomers said.

One of them, called Eta Carinae, is in the final stages of its short life span, with two billowing lobes of gas and dust -- a harbinger of its future explosion as a large supernova.

"In short, it gives us a glimpse of the violent conditions that most stars are born in, where they are exposed to the relentless irradiation from their older siblings," astronomer Nathan Smith of the University of California at Berkeley, the lead investigator in this work, said by e-mail.

"There are several clues suggesting that our sun and planets were indeed born in a violent region something like this, along with some very hot and massive stars," Smith added. Our solar system was formed about 4.6 billion years ago.

The nebula is about 7,500 light years away from Earth in the constellation Carina in a neighboring spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy. The Hubble image depicts a massive region, but it is only a small portion of the whole nebula, which spans 150 to 200 light years across, Smith said.

People can see the nebula with the naked eye from Earth's southern hemisphere, Smith said.

"What you are seeing in the image is hot ionized gas -- in this case, the colors represent oxygen, hydrogen and sulfur at different temperatures," Smith added.

The image was released to coincide with the 17th anniversary of launching Hubble into orbit to provide scientists with clear and deep views of the universe without the Earth's atmosphere getting in the way. It is one of the largest panoramic images ever taken by Hubble.

The future of Hubble is in doubt because the space shuttle program is winding down in the coming years and the telescope needs manned maintenance missions to continue operations.

The image was released by NASA's Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.


http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/04/25/hubble.nebula.reut/index.html