KIC 8462852 Observations |
KIC 8462852 Observations |
Oct 15 2015, 04:45 PM
Post
#1
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
Kepler found one very, very strange case:
http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive...-galaxy/410023/ In a nutshell, while Kepler was observing it, the star (larger and brighter than the Sun) exhibited four dimming events that took place at irregular intervals, blocked a lot more light than a Jupiter-sized planet would block, and had a "shape" that varied in all four cases and did not resemble a planet. This case is attracting some wild speculation… in fact, it is seemingly certain that something wild must be going on; it's just a matter of which wild scenario is the correct one. If I had to throw my hat in the ring, I'd guess that a distant collision and breakup has placed big swarms of matter into a very long-period orbit. But there's no hypothesis that's been offered that doesn't seem problematic. |
|
|
Oct 21 2015, 06:57 PM
Post
#2
|
|
Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 98 Joined: 24-November 04 Member No.: 111 |
My concept is that the rings are not edge-on to earth (of course), but tilted as described earlier, as in the Uranus or Pluto-Charon system.
Yes this star would require 3 super-Saturns with the ring planes titled at high angles to the ecliptic. Agreed. Unlikely? Yes. But then we have Uranus and Pluto-Charon. For the sun, 25% of the large planets have a highly inclined orientation. 75% of the large planets have continuous rings. 25% of the large planets have huge opaque rings. Now we get down to likelihood. A SWAG could be made just using the above numbers, but for a starting point, I would need to know the average number of large planets orbiting a star which is observed to have planets (it's in the Kepler data, I just don't know it). I bet the result is rare...maybe 0.1% or something like that. But then of all the thousands of systems Kepler has found, so far we have found just one system like this. |
|
|
Oct 22 2015, 12:40 AM
Post
#3
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
Yes this star would require 3 super-Saturns with the ring planes titled at high angles to the ecliptic. Agreed. Unlikely? Yes. But then we have Uranus and Pluto-Charon. For the sun, 25% of the large planets have a highly inclined orientation. That doesn't begin to capture it. The case we've observed would require that the ring systems be highly inclined and relatively face-on as seen from Earth and highly inclined in the same way. It is not at all a given that two highly inclined (with regard to their star) systems would have poles that are mutually relatively aligned and face-on to Earth, much less that three or four would! And all be transiting. This isn't a couple of coincidences or a few coincidences; it's a barrel full of coincidences. Basically, five or more axes would have to be co-aligned for no damned good reason. Not merely highly inclined WRT their orbits, but highly inclined WRT their orbits and co-aligned WRT one another. If we see five of these coincidences in one system, we ought to be seeing two or three of them in orders of magnitudes more systems, and we aren't. |
|
|
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 8th June 2024 - 03:39 PM |
RULES AND GUIDELINES Please read the Forum Rules and Guidelines before posting. IMAGE COPYRIGHT |
OPINIONS AND MODERATION Opinions expressed on UnmannedSpaceflight.com are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of UnmannedSpaceflight.com or The Planetary Society. The all-volunteer UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderation team is wholly independent of The Planetary Society. The Planetary Society has no influence over decisions made by the UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderators. |
SUPPORT THE FORUM Unmannedspaceflight.com is funded by the Planetary Society. Please consider supporting our work and many other projects by donating to the Society or becoming a member. |