Extreme Exoplanet Volcanism Possibly Detected On 55 Cancri E 40
astroengine writes with this excerpt from Discovery.com: Using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have revealed wild atmospheric changes on a well studied exoplanet — changes that they suspect are driven by extreme volcanic activity. Over a period of two years, the team, led by University of Cambridge researchers, noted a three-fold change in temperature on the surface of 55 Cancri e. The super-Earth planet orbits a sun-like star 40 light-years away in the constellation of Cancer. It is twice the size of Earth and 8-times our planet's mass. 55 Cancri e is well-known to exoplanet hunters as the "diamond planet" — a world thought to be carbon-rich, possibly covered in hydrocarbons. But this new finding, published in the arXiv pre-print service, has added a new dimension to the planet's weird nature. "This is the first time we've seen such drastic changes in light emitted from an exoplanet, which is particularly remarkable for a super-Earth," said co-author Nikku Madhusudhan, of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy, in a press release. "No signature of thermal emissions or surface activity has ever been detected for any other super-Earth to date."
Fascinating (Score:2)
Re:Fascinating (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, it's literally stuff which was theoretical science (if not science fiction) 25 years ago.
Some days I look back at Pong and think "holy shit we've come a long way".
Detecting possible volcanoes on a planet 40 light years away? That boggles my mind.
Yay science!!
Re:Fascinating (Score:4, Interesting)
I am going to nitpick... Because Science coverage has been abused by the word Theory.
These are not Theories, but Hypothesis, once you are able to test these idea, then you get the Theory out of it.
Global Warming is a Theory. There have been mountains of test to show its validity.
Health Problems with GMO is a Hypothesis, it is a guess that needs further investigation.
Re: (Score:1)
Wanna hijack this thread for politics? Okay, I'll bite. Verifying phenomena like volcanism on an exoplanet is the kind of thing we would be able to do if astronomers only had larger telescopes. Which now we will never have unless China (which doesn't have any really good terrestrial sites of its own) puts one into space for us.
big scope on the big island (Score:2)
"Verifying phenomena like volcanism on an exoplanet is the kind of thing we would be able to do if astronomers only had larger telescopes. "
Speaking of large volcanoes, that would be a good place to put a large telescope, but I guess the people that live there don't want us looking for other volcanoes and stuff
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what are you talking about, soon to be launched nasa telescopes will do just that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J... [wikipedia.org]
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No, I wasn't. I am more concerned about the quality of Science Reporting.
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Honestly, I'll take that you could have an actual question if we're interpreting the imaging of the exoplanet correctly as proof of my point.
At this point,
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Told you geoforming would have side effects (Score:1, Flamebait)
But no, you insisted we could address the root causes of global warming by "altering the atmosphere".
Chalk up another dead world of climate change deniers.
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I'm not saying it was aliens, but... (Score:5, Funny)
It was aliens having a global thermonuclear war.
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They'd have to be hellatough to have a nuclear war lasting two years.
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actually, that could well be the type we have on Earth, if command and control of any major nuclear power taken down missiles could be launched sporadically over indefinite time period
Cancri (Score:2)
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You should totally go and watch some exotic dancri to celebrate.
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Oh stop it, you silly wankri.
If I owned this place and hell (Score:2)
I'd rent this place out and live in hell.
three-fold change? (Score:1)
2973 K / 1273 K = 2.335
You need creative rounding to get a factor of 3.
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1273 = 1000
3000/1000....
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What a great time to be alive (Score:1)
I'm very happy that I'm alive at the same time as humanity's discovery of extra-solar worlds. In 500 years discoveries like those in TFA will still be remembered. It seems plausible that we will be seen as living through a golden age of astronomy.
It's also just plain exciting. I imagine 'excited' is how people felt when they first saw Galileo's sketches of lunar craters & Jupiter's moons.
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depends if we get sent back to the dark ages, either by ourselves or by hostile extraterrestrial life
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I'll take old age, thanks
I really don't think nuclear weapons would be useful against any race that has mastered interstellar travel, it'd be like the few amazon aboriginal tribes with arrows and poison darts vs. the U.S. Army using Apache copters loaded with Hellfire, Hydra and chain guns. A five minute action movie.
Oh my goodness (Score:2)
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