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Astronomers discover planet with four suns — Parallax Forums

Astronomers discover planet with four suns

skylightskylight Posts: 1,915
edited 2012-10-16 09:04 in General Discussion
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19950923

The planet is six times the size of the earth, Imagine the cost of all that extra sun factor cream!

Comments

  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2012-10-15 16:31
    It's only 5000 light years away.....you know what I'm thinking'

    ........ ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!!
  • PJAllenPJAllen Banned Posts: 5,065
    edited 2012-10-15 17:34
    And still we can't get a "high-resolution" picture of Pluto.
    Strains credulity.
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    edited 2012-10-15 17:48
    They just won't release them. It's the anti-Pluto Planetray Conspiracy Federation squashing all the evidence.
  • Duane C. JohnsonDuane C. Johnson Posts: 955
    edited 2012-10-15 18:04
    The orbits of things like these use methods far more sensitive than just using simple imaging.

    Doppler shift of the combined light from the system shifts periodically. This is exquisitely sensitive to the motions of the stars and reveals the presence of the planet.

    Take a look at a very complicated system Gliese 581.
    See how they figure this stuff out.

    BTW, Gliese 581G is a reasonable candidate for actual imaging some day.

    Duane J
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2012-10-15 18:14
    Article says that 2 stars are orbiting the planet. Doesn't make sense unless they are orbiting the main binary stars also.

    Seems we actually have an infrared picture of a giant Jupiter orbiting another star. http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/331463/enlarge

    There was also some discussion of the hot spot being in the wrong place (on that one?) presumably caused by the planet's wind.

    According to current thought (right or wrong) as I've been taught: Part of the definition of planet (by convention) states that a planet is 1) a body that orbits the Sun, 2) is massive enough for its own gravity to make it round, and 3) has "cleared its neighborhood" of smaller objects around its orbit (not including it's moons). If Pluto is a planet, then so are asteroid belt bodies Ceres and Vesta for a total of 11 planets. Pluto, Ceres, Vesta are considered dwarf planets. Ceres and Vesta are actually more like planets than Pluto in that they orbit on the solar disk plane like all the other planets whereas Pluto does not. Please, this is not some planetary religious war shot across the bow :)
  • Duane C. JohnsonDuane C. Johnson Posts: 955
    edited 2012-10-15 18:51
    jazzed wrote: »
    Article says that 2 stars are orbiting the planet. Doesn't make sense unless they are orbiting the main binary stars also.
    Actually that is what is happening.

    Binary stars are very common.
    Of course pairs of binaries are less common but not rare.
    In this case, one of the binaries has a planet.
    For this to be stable the other binary must be a fairly long distance way away.

    BTW, a visible multiple star system is Mizar Alcor in the Big Dipper. My eyes can no longer see the pair. Mizar is actually 4 stars and Alcor is binary for a total of six.

    Duane J
  • lanternfishlanternfish Posts: 366
    edited 2012-10-15 19:10
    Quite a few years ago there a (Mac?) program that allowed you to model planetary systems. It wasn't particularly sophisticated though the reults for different masses for our solar system provided some fun. And multiple sun systems could be modelled. Some would fly apart, some would colapse inwards and occassionally you could get short periuod stability.

    Hmmm ... off on a search
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2012-10-15 19:32
    Often, with 3+-body systems, the orbital dynamics are chaotic. That does not necessarily imply long-term instability.

    -Phil
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2012-10-15 22:19
    PJ Allen wrote: »
    And still we can't get a "high-resolution" picture of Pluto. Strains credulity.

    Soon.. "In 2006, NASA dispatched an ambassador to the planetary frontier. The New Horizons spacecraft is now halfway between Earth and Pluto, on approach for a dramatic flight past the icy planet and its moons in July 2015."

    http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    edited 2012-10-16 01:47
    The latest I read about Pluto is that it and one of its' moons (now called a dwarf planet) are together binary planets, meaning they are rotating around each other. Then there are 4 moons going around the pair. Interesting hey!

    Oh, and apparently there are now something like 250+ dwarf planets in our solar system, of which Pluto is only the second largest (as Steve mentioned). So glad they demoted Pluto. Imagine having to learn 250 odd planet names, including their order.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2012-10-16 02:32
    This is a very odd coincidence. Last week I was wondering if solar systems could have 3 suns or 4 suns. I have an on going curiosity about geometric relationships and what is really physically possible. And there are some very interesting questions about whether 3 suns are an impossibility, after all, I presume these are spinning close to each other.

    I'd love to know if all four suns are on one plane or if they form a tetrahedron. In other words, are they tightly packed due to vast gravity forces, or are they spread out on one axis as circular motion dictates their placement.
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2012-10-16 09:04
    Duane C. Johnson wrote: »
    BTW, a visible multiple star system is Mizar Alcor in the Big Dipper. My eyes can no longer see the pair....

    Fascinating article. Thanks for posting. Even Jupiter is barely visible here in the valley because of light pollution :(
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