Smaller Than Earth-Sized Exomoon Discovered? 25
astroengine writes "Through the technique of microlensing, a candidate exomoon has been discovered in orbit around a free-floating planet about 1,600 light-years away toward the galactic bulge. The microlensing event, MOA-2011-BLG-262, was detected by the MOA-II telescope at Mt. John University Observatory (MJUO) in New Zealand and it appears to have a mass of approximately half that of Earth. The host planet is around 4 times the mass of Jupiter. Unfortunately there cannot be further studies of his particular exoplanet-exomoon pair (as microlensing events are transient and random), so the astronomers who made the discovery are remaining cautious and point out that although the exoplanet-exomoon model fits the data the best, there's a possibility that the lensing object may have been a more distant star with a massive exoplanet in tow. Microlensing surveys are, however, sensitive to low mass exoplanets orbiting massive free-floating planets, so this is a tantalizing first-detection. The study's pre-print publication has been uploaded to the arXiv."
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you did not have to post that as AC.
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+1 Redundant?
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That being said, anything we learn from outside our sun's gravity well may be new data worth examination.
Winter Homes? (Score:4, Interesting)
Free floating planets give me hope. There are use cases for free floating planets. Stars explode. It's nice to know there are some places out there we can have low-maintenance long-term storage options deep inside, safe from cosmic rays or exploding stars -- We might not have to build them from scratch, or worry about how to power EM shields indefinitely. We ever make it off this wet rock before the sun explodes the Andromeda Galaxy will be merging with ours. That's a whole new galaxy full of resources, and it's heading our way. We'll probably need new stars and planets to harvest eventually, so that's a good thing.
Unfortunately it doesn't look like life on Earth will be able to survive the sun's explosion, and we can't tow the planet in enough time to sling it away for posterity's sake -- Sure would be nice if we could though, maybe it's not impossible, but who can say what a few billion years of new technology will bring. It would be cool to visit the free floating frozen origin of our species rather than let it be fried to a crisp, and/or re-liquefied. The crust just isn't thick enough to burrow down in thanks to our large moon-making collision. C'est la vie.
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If we need material from the Andromeda galaxy -- in that time frame. It seems to me that we will be such a widespread and dynamic race we will have built a few thousand/million new earths by then.
And to harvest a galaxy worth of resources -- we'd have to move faster than light.
I think before that, well have developed things like Force Fields. Which I'm now more certain of than ever, once you consider that Matter should be transparent and should not be blocking other matter considering how much distance ther
Zappa (Score:4, Funny)
"... mass of approximately half that of Earth"
How many moon units would that be?
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"... mass of approximately half that of Earth"
How many moon units would that be?
Around 40. At least if you can assume the mass reported for Earth and the moon given on wikipedia. A simple division says the earth is 81.2797 "moon units".
Re:Zappa (Score:5, Funny)
"... mass of approximately half that of Earth"
How many moon units would that be?
Around 40. At least if you can assume the mass reported for Earth and the moon given on wikipedia. A simple division says the earth is 81.2797 "moon units".
Okay. Then how many Franks or Dweezils does that translate to? Like, ohmahgawd!
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Okay. Then how many Franks or Dweezils does that translate to? Like, ohmahgawd!
I wish I had mod points because that is fucking funny... like, totally!
I think it works out to 0.75 Ahmet, but I have no idea how many Diva that equals...
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The observatory that published this isn't even American, you fuck.
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Only one nation has even managed to put a man on the MOON (orbiting THIS planet) and that nation is not now even capable of putting a CHIMP into orbit (something it COULD do 50 years ago).
Notice all the noise politicians are starting to make about regulating and "permitting" mining and settling of the moon, Mars, asteroids, though.
Collapse all economic dynamism, but god damned, we're level 95 and counting on our ability to pontificate and lord over the population.
As Shakespeare might say:
Permitting and permitting and permitting
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle
Re:Ever noticed (Score:5, Insightful)
Only one nation has even managed to put a man on the MOON
All those losers who studied the moon before we had spaceflight should have been doing something more productive, amirite?
you mean people such as yourself?
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how truly pointless this stuff is? Sure, there are a few astronomy geeks who are able to make a living (from grants, rather than productive economic activity) studying this stuff, but it has ZERO potential to actually produce any benefit and therefore generate value in the economy...
You bitching on the internet has ZERO potential to actually produce any benefit and therefore generate value int eh economy... so you you are pointless.
So... (Score:3)
so the options are... (Score:2)
Or
"That's no moon"
neat-o (Score:2)
There was this one time, when like, I thought this one thing was a bug, but when I got closer it was a pebble.
Did I ever tell you about this one time when I thought I seriously fucked my toe up, but I only stubbed it?
I remember once when I walked a long time, like it felt like tons of hours and miles, but it was only an hour and it was only like three miles. I dunno I guess I was tired.