Comments on: Astronomer make first map of extrasolar planet! http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/09/astronomer-make-first-map-of-extrasolar-planet/ I am an astronomer, writer, and skeptic. I likes reality the way it is, and I aims to keep it that way. My real name is Phil Plait, and I run the Bad Astronomy blog. Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:08:51 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By:   Astronomer make first map of extrasolar planet! by News Automator http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/09/astronomer-make-first-map-of-extrasolar-planet/comment-page-1/#comment-36020   Astronomer make first map of extrasolar planet! by News Automator Mon, 21 May 2007 19:34:49 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/09/astronomer-make-first-map-of-extrasolar-planet/#comment-36020 [...] post by The Bad Astronomer Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...] [...] post by The Bad Astronomer Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...]

]]> By: Hot Spot News » Blog Archive » Astronomer make first map of extrasolar planet! http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/09/astronomer-make-first-map-of-extrasolar-planet/comment-page-1/#comment-35996 Hot Spot News » Blog Archive » Astronomer make first map of extrasolar planet! Sun, 20 May 2007 12:07:22 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/09/astronomer-make-first-map-of-extrasolar-planet/#comment-35996 [...] post by The Bad Astronomer Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...] [...] post by The Bad Astronomer Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...]

]]> By: Mark Martin http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/09/astronomer-make-first-map-of-extrasolar-planet/comment-page-1/#comment-36019 Mark Martin Sun, 13 May 2007 02:09:15 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/09/astronomer-make-first-map-of-extrasolar-planet/#comment-36019 Hi Chris, 2.2 days does sound rather brief, but it's not absurd. Let's posit a satellite on orbit close to our sun. If we specify its orbital period t be just 2.2 days, the radius of that orbit comes out to a little over three million miles, a perfectly possible circumstance. It all just depends on the solar mass and the radius of the orbit. Hi Chris,

2.2 days does sound rather brief, but it’s not absurd. Let’s posit a satellite on orbit close to our sun. If we specify its orbital period t be just 2.2 days, the radius of that orbit comes out to a little over three million miles, a perfectly possible circumstance. It all just depends on the solar mass and the radius of the orbit.

]]> By: Chris M http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/09/astronomer-make-first-map-of-extrasolar-planet/comment-page-1/#comment-36018 Chris M Sun, 13 May 2007 00:16:35 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/09/astronomer-make-first-map-of-extrasolar-planet/#comment-36018 Hi I have now read in a couple of places (think i have read...) that this planet completes an orbit in 2.2 days or so.... isnt that a little fast, no matter how close it is to its star. Im no scientist, but im failry sure that there are still vast amounts of miles/km involved, and i dont see how or why a planet would orbit that fast? i mean, wow... it must have some speed! Please can someone explain this to me? Thanks Hi
I have now read in a couple of places (think i have read…)
that this planet completes an orbit in 2.2 days or so….
isnt that a little fast, no matter how close it is to its star.
Im no scientist, but im failry sure that there are still vast amounts of miles/km involved, and i dont see how or why a planet would orbit that fast?
i mean, wow… it must have some speed!

Please can someone explain this to me?

Thanks

]]> By: Stu http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/09/astronomer-make-first-map-of-extrasolar-planet/comment-page-1/#comment-36017 Stu Fri, 11 May 2007 13:43:37 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/09/astronomer-make-first-map-of-extrasolar-planet/#comment-36017 Thanks Buzz and Mark, appreciate the thoughtful feedback; I was expecting a lot of flak for my heretical views! I fully appreciate and understand that in all ways technical and official these objects ARE planets - being a children's astronomy book author I know all the definitions and processes, as flawed as they are - but (and I actually think a lot of people feel this way too, but just don't say it) there's still a niggly voice at the back of my mind saying "Well, yes, it's amazing we can do this, well done guys, but these things are so big and hot and behave so freakily that they're not real planets, are they?" But it sounds like it's just me... ;-) As for Pluto, well, that's not over yet, I'm sure, and I made my thoughts on that plain here... http://journals.aol.com/stuartatk/TheVerse/entries/2006/08/27/banishing-pluto/631 Thanks Buzz and Mark, appreciate the thoughtful feedback; I was expecting a lot of flak for my heretical views! I fully appreciate and understand that in all ways technical and official these objects ARE planets – being a children’s astronomy book author I know all the definitions and processes, as flawed as they are – but (and I actually think a lot of people feel this way too, but just don’t say it) there’s still a niggly voice at the back of my mind saying “Well, yes, it’s amazing we can do this, well done guys, but these things are so big and hot and behave so freakily that they’re not real planets, are they?” But it sounds like it’s just me… ;-)

As for Pluto, well, that’s not over yet, I’m sure, and I made my thoughts on that plain here…

http://journals.aol.com/stuartatk/TheVerse/entries/2006/08/27/banishing-pluto/631

]]> By: Mark Martin http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/09/astronomer-make-first-map-of-extrasolar-planet/comment-page-1/#comment-36016 Mark Martin Fri, 11 May 2007 13:15:55 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/09/astronomer-make-first-map-of-extrasolar-planet/#comment-36016 Stu, What matters isn't how closely these objects resemble the familiar planets in our neighborhood. What matters is that they are being discovered, and measured. It allows for the spectrum of known possibilities to be broadened, and ultimately for our understanding of the kind of universe in which we find ourselves to be generalized and strengthened. Stu,

What matters isn’t how closely these objects resemble the familiar planets in our neighborhood. What matters is that they are being discovered, and measured. It allows for the spectrum of known possibilities to be broadened, and ultimately for our understanding of the kind of universe in which we find ourselves to be generalized and strengthened.

]]> By: David http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/09/astronomer-make-first-map-of-extrasolar-planet/comment-page-1/#comment-36015 David Fri, 11 May 2007 09:35:39 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/09/astronomer-make-first-map-of-extrasolar-planet/#comment-36015 It looks from that press release as if they didn't use the changes in brightness during eclipse by the star, they just measured brightness variations during planetary rotation to get the integrated brightness of longitudinal strips. (In fact, you can work out from the maps they must have done something like that, since the occultation method you describe can't work for the anti-stellar hemisphere.) Since the limb of the star doesn't line up exactly with lines of longitude on the planet as the one occults the other, it should theoretically be possible to use the occultation method to refine the map into something more truly two-dimensional for the sub-stellar hemisphere. Or maybe they did that but didn't mention it. Buzz Parsec: of course it's a planet, but not by the IAU definition which insists on the body being in our solar system. It looks from that press release as if they didn’t use the changes in brightness during eclipse by the star, they just measured brightness variations during planetary rotation to get the integrated brightness of longitudinal strips. (In fact, you can work out from the maps they must have done something like that, since the occultation method you describe can’t work for the anti-stellar hemisphere.)

Since the limb of the star doesn’t line up exactly with lines of longitude on the planet as the one occults the other, it should theoretically be possible to use the occultation method to refine the map into something more truly two-dimensional for the sub-stellar hemisphere. Or maybe they did that but didn’t mention it.

Buzz Parsec: of course it’s a planet, but not by the IAU definition which insists on the body being in our solar system.

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