#4070259 - 01/27/15 09:16 PM
Gigantic ring system around J1407b much larger, heavier than Saturns
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Desert Eagle
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http://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/gigantic-ring-system-around-j1407b/Astronomers at the Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands, and the University of Rochester, USA, have discovered that the ring system that they see eclipse the very young Sun-like star J1407 is of enormous proportions, much larger and heavier than the ring system of Saturn. The ring system the first of its kind to be found outside our solar system was discovered in 2012 by a team led by Rochesters Eric Mamajek.
A new analysis of the data, led by Leidens Matthew Kenworthy, shows that the ring system consists of over 30 rings, each of them tens of millions of kilometers in diameter. Furthermore, they found gaps in the rings, which indicate that satellites (exomoons) may have formed. The result has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.
The details that we see in the light curve are incredible. The eclipse lasted for several weeks, but you see rapid changes on time scales of tens of minutes as a result of fine structures in the rings, says Kenworthy. The star is much too far away to observe the rings directly, but we could make a detailed model based on the rapid brightness variations in the star light passing through the ring system. If we could replace Saturns rings with the rings around J1407b, they would be easily visible at night and be many times larger than the full moon. I wonder if Elite has the system and if it's already updated with this latest discovery? Going to check.
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#4070267 - 01/27/15 09:21 PM
Re: Gigantic ring system around J1407b much larger, heavier than Saturns
[Re: Desert Eagle]
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Jedi Master
Entil'zha
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Entil'zha
Sierra Hotel
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Wait, what?
A star...with moons? That makes no sense. If it's a star, then that would be an accretion disk, and those would be planetesimals on their way to becoming full or at least dwarf planets.
This sounds like they want to talk about a star like it's a gas giant when it's not.
The Jedi Master
The anteater is wearing the bagel because he's a reindeer princess. -- my 4 yr old daughter
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#4070279 - 01/27/15 09:43 PM
Re: Gigantic ring system around J1407b much larger, heavier than Saturns
[Re: Desert Eagle]
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Desert Eagle
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'J1407b' is a gas giant that orbits the star 'J1407'.
I know the description is a bit confusing, but basically the astronomers say they the saw the star, 'J1407', being dimmed by the planet, 'J1407b', ring system as it passed in front of it and determined that the rings must be around 200x bigger than Saturn.
Also can't seem to find it in Elite. Either it's not there yet or it has a different name.
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#4070282 - 01/27/15 09:45 PM
Re: Gigantic ring system around J1407b much larger, heavier than Saturns
[Re: Desert Eagle]
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Entil'zha
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Entil'zha
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Ah, ok, it is worded badly...that's what happens when you use designations like TK421 instead of names!
The Jedi Master
The anteater is wearing the bagel because he's a reindeer princess. -- my 4 yr old daughter
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#4070285 - 01/27/15 09:50 PM
Re: Gigantic ring system around J1407b much larger, heavier than Saturns
[Re: Desert Eagle]
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Desert Eagle
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Oh, and J1407 is the short version of the name the full name is '1SWASP J140747.93-394542.6'. Catchy I know! Here's more info: http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/content/Eclipsing-Ring-System-J1407
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#4070463 - 01/28/15 08:34 AM
Re: Gigantic ring system around J1407b much larger, heavier than Saturns
[Re: Desert Eagle]
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PV1
sometime mudslinger
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sometime mudslinger
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Yeah, 1SWASP J140747.93-394542.6 is a very young star, a little lighter than the sun and around 16 million years old, 420ly away, Centaurus. This sort of information ought to be in the news article, but I had to go to wiki for it. At ~0.9 solar mass, it will be a late G star, A bit more orange than the sun. And being so young, the presence of lots of rings is not at all surprising. The neat part is we're figuring out how to find them. At such an incredibly young age, it is probable that the rings are quite temporary, and will evolve into moons and otherwise dissipate in a short time on the stellar time scale, say the next 50-100my (the star will last about 30% longer than our sun, around 13by). Our own solar system might have had large ring systems when it was that young, though perhaps not quite this big, as the planet supporting them is much larger than any we have.
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#4070559 - 01/28/15 02:26 PM
Re: Gigantic ring system around J1407b much larger, heavier than Saturns
[Re: Desert Eagle]
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Joined: Feb 2000
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Jedi Master
Entil'zha
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Entil'zha
Sierra Hotel
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I can't wait to make an interstellar journey to the planet Kanye orbiting the star Kim.
The Jedi Master
The anteater is wearing the bagel because he's a reindeer princess. -- my 4 yr old daughter
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