New planet discovered, "Gliese 581 c"

[HilbertSpace]

No, merely confusing the classification as I did last night on another board.

Whereas our Sun will enter the red giant stage and engulf the Earth at the end of its lifetime, red dwarves undergo no such process - they formed as is.

Excellent - thank you.

I'm actually quite interested in exobiology, so yeah, this is a juicy tidbit.

[Dark Razor]

Interesting, however, is it correct that the same side always faces the sun?
Wouldn't that mean that there are probably extreme storms on the planet?
There's also the possibility that two completely different types of evolution came about on the two sides of the planet, one based on chemical energy, like that of sea organisms in the lightless depths of the earth's oceans, and one based on energy gained from photons, like terestrial plants.
If the atmosphere is dense enough then there probably wont be such a high temperature difference between dark and bright side as the air mixes because of the temp gradient, but that would mean strong storms, possibly as permanent storm systems, like on Jupiter. I think it's questionable if terestrial life could develop under constant storms, sea life should not be affected by this though.

[sundowning]

Interesting, however, is it correct that the same side always faces the sun?
Wouldn't that mean that there are probably extreme storms on the planet?
There's also the possibility that two completely different types of evolution came about on the two sides of the planet, one based on chemical energy, like that of sea organisms in the lightless depths of the earth's oceans, and one based on energy gained from photons, like terestrial plants.
If the atmosphere is dense enough then there probably wont be such a high temperature difference between dark and bright side as the air mixes because of the temp gradient, but that would mean strong storms, possibly as permanent storm systems, like on Jupiter. I think it's questionable if terestrial life could develop under constant storms, sea life should not be affected by this though.

One article briefly discussed this, supposing that the temperate regions would be near the edge of the lighted area (though not necessarily inferring the rest is inhabitable).

I mean, really - what do they know? That a planet exists, basically; it could feature a unique model of circulation, or it could be a planet with great extremes moderated only slightly by atmosphere.

[darlets]

bleh, this can go here
"nternational astronomers say they have found the strongest evidence yet of the existence of the mysterious substance known as dark matter.

Scientists believe invisible dark matter accounts for 90 per cent of the universe's mass and holds together galaxy clusters.

Otherwise, galaxies would only have the gravity from their visible stars, which would not be enough to keep them from flying apart.

A NASA team using the Hubble Space Telescope has now detected what it describes as a ghostly ring of dark matter around a cluster of galaxies 5 billion light years away.

The massive ring measures 2.6 million light years across.

Although it cannot be seen, astronomer James Jee says scientists have mapped out the ring's shape using distortions it produces in light coming from distant objects behind it.

"This is the first time we have detected dark matter as having a unique structure that is different from the gas and galaxies in the cluster," he said.

"Although the invisible matter has been found before in other galaxy clusters, it has never been detected to be so largely separated from the hot gas and the galaxies that make up galaxy clusters.

"By seeing a dark matter structure that is not traced by galaxies and hot gas, we can study how it behaves differently from normal matter."

The US astronomers say they made the discovery accidentally while mapping the distribution of dark matter within the ZwC10024+1652 cluster in August 2006.

As they studied their data, the astronomers noticed a ripple in the dark matter, similar to ripples created when a stone is plopped into a pond.

Dr Jee says he was upset when he found the ring because he thought there was a flaw in the team's data reduction.

But he then found research published in 2002 suggesting the cluster under observation had collided with another cluster 1 to 2 billion years ago.

The collision occurred along Earth's line of sight and from this perspective, the dark-matter structure looks like a ring.

Dr Jee says the galaxy cluster collision "created a ripple of dark matter which left distinct footprints in the shapes of the background galaxies".

"It's like looking at the pebbles on the bottom of a pond with ripples on the surface," he said.

"The pebbles' shapes appear to change as the ripples pass over them.

"So, too, the background galaxies behind the ring show coherent changes in their shapes due to the presence of the dense ring." "
Astronomers discover 'dark matter ring'. 16/05/2007. ABC News Online

[Geoff]

So if it is 20 light years away, we are seeing what it looked like in 1987, presumably.

Since then it could have been blown up by a Death Star. Just sayin', that's all.

-Geoff

[wyrdsister]

So if it is 20 light years away, we are seeing what it looked like in 1987, presumably.

Since then it could have been blown up by a Death Star. Just sayin', that's all.

-Geoff

It's so weird that when you look up... you are looking at history.

Always amazes me.

[MacGuffin]

So if it is 20 light years away, we are seeing what it looked like in 1987, presumably.

Since then it could have been blown up by a Death Star. Just sayin', that's all.

-Geoff

We were not in that sector.

[Geoff]

We were not in that sector.

I don't know, I felt a strong disturbance in the Force in 1987.

[raincrow007]

I don't know, I felt a strong disturbance in the Force in 1987.

That was just me hitting double digits.

[darlets]

I don't know, I felt a strong disturbance in the Force in 1987.

how star wars should have ended

Some of the other movies at that site aren't that bad.

Yeah, I find it cool that you look up and you're staring at history.