DailyDirt: The Rest Of The Universe

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Mon, Mar 5th 2012 5:00pm — Michael Ho

There's a lot we don't know about the universe. Until relatively recently, we weren't even sure how big the universe is. Telescopes looking deep into space have gathered a lot of interesting information, and we're finding all sorts of strange phenomena and types of extra-solar planets. Here are just a few cool tidbits about planets from far, far away.

Nomad planets could be floating around our galaxy without orbiting a star in surprisingly large numbers. Based on some new estimates, there might be 100,000 times more nomad planets in the Milky Way than stars. [url]
The Hubble telescope has found a totally new class of planet that is made of an enormous amount of water. Given the density of this waterworld, GJ1214b has more water than Earth and much less rockiness. [url]
The Kepler Space Telescope has discovered over a thousand planets outside our solar system, and a few other star systems have interesting planetary orbit patterns. One "Kepler Object of Interest" (KOI) is a system in which there are planets that share the same orbit. In another KOI, all the planets circle their star in under a week. Strange, new worlds, indeed. [url]
To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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Filed Under: astronomy, exoplanets, hubble, kepler, koi, nomad planets, telescopes

6 Comments

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abc gum, 5 Mar 2012 @ 5:13pm

That's no Nomad Planet, that's a space station.
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- Michael Ho (profile), 5 Mar 2012 @ 5:52pm
  
  Re:
  Heh. Nice Star Wars reference... but it would actually be really cool if there were advanced civilizations cruising around in huge planet-sized ships.
  
  It would even still be cool if there were just single-celled life existing on a nomad planet....
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  - silverscarcat (profile), 5 Mar 2012 @ 7:28pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Unicron?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 6 Mar 2012 @ 6:02pm
    
    Single-celled life?
    We...are...Nomad. Must...sterilize.
    Now let the Star Wars vs. Star Trek debate begin!
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Mar 2012 @ 5:22pm

A water planet? That's great news!
We finally found a place to send Kevin Costner.
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Pixelation, 5 Mar 2012 @ 9:46pm

Future Earth?
"A recent look at the data has found one system that could have two planets in the same orbit."

It is thought that the earth had another planet in the same orbit which impacted the earth and created the moon.

Cool "factoid"... the moon was likely about 15,000 miles from the earth when it was formed.
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