KIC 8462852 Observations |
KIC 8462852 Observations |
Oct 15 2015, 04:45 PM
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#1
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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. |
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Oct 31 2015, 06:52 AM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2090 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Ontario Member No.: 5221 |
Yes, just as I suspected. I did a quick search t to find out if there were any journal articles, but found nothing. Looks like yet again truth is stranger than (science) fiction.
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Nov 2 2015, 05:01 PM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
There are probably some planets made largely/entirely of gaseous rock and/or metal, which is pretty strange to consider. But I'd be very surprised if we find any planets much denser than iron (that is, iron's various denser states, under pressure). Iron is far more common than any elements heavier than iron, and I can't think of many processes that would discard iron and keep the heavier stuff. The center of the Earth's core is modeled to have a density of about 14 g/cm^3. I think the absolute maximum for any extrasolar planets would be around that level or less.
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Nov 3 2015, 03:44 AM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 684 Joined: 24-July 15 Member No.: 7619 |
...I can't think of many processes that would discard iron and keep the heavier stuff. ... I think the absolute maximum for any extrasolar planets would be around that level or less. Well, what about a white dwarf that hits something and goes splat. So, is there an inverse of the Chandrashekar limit, that requires small pieces of electron degenerate matter revert to "ordinary" matter below a specific mass? I recall theories about chunks of material made with charmed or strange quark properties remaining stable once formed |
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