MUFONET-BBS NETWORK - MUTUAL UFO NETWORK
ASTRONOMY NEWS - WIRE
=START= XMT: 12:36 Wed Jul 24 EXP: 13:00 Wed Jul 31
ASTRONOMERS DISCOVER POSSIBLE NEW PLANET OUTSIDE EARTH'S
SOLAR SYSTEM
WASHINGTON (JULY 24) UPI - Astronomers announced Wednesday
they had discovered what could be the first planet outside
Earth's solar system, a mysterious world that appears to be
orbiting the flashing remains of a collapsed star.
''It's not 100 percent sure they're right, but if they are
it's trailblazing and historic,'' said Cornell University
astronomer Carl Sagan.
Although scientists have long thought other planets exist
elsewhere in the universe, the discovery could end the long
hunt and provide new reason to believe that extraterrestrial
life may be possible, the researchers said.
''It's the first concrete evidence that there may be other
planetary systems other than our own in the universe. Ours
could have just been a fluke. But if we see other planets it
means our star is not alone in having a planetary system,''
said Andrew Lyne, who led the British team that found the
possible planet.
''If there are other planetary systems then it means that
there are other possible platforms for life in the universe.
Planets are about the only place in the universe that we
think that life could exist in any form that we could
imagine,'' he said in a telephone interview.
Lyne said he doubted life existed on the newly discovered
planet because any living organisms would probably have been
destroyed when its sun collapsed in a massive nuclear
explosion.
In addition, its sun - a pulsar - emits most of its energy
in the form of deadly gamma ray radiation, which would
constantly bathe any planet and kill any life, Lyne said.
However, he added that there is a remote possibility the
planet was formed after the sun collapsed, or it could have
some type of atmosphere that could protect life.
If it has an atmosphere, the gamma rays from the star
probably produce a constant light show similar to Earth's
northern lights as gamma rays hit the atmosphere every third
of a second, he said.
Other astronomers, however, remained skeptical, saying more
research had to be conducted before anyone could conclude
the researchers had in fact discovered a planet.
''It's the Holy Grail of astronomy - to find a new planet.
There have been a number of announcements that have all
turned out to be either premature or incorrect,'' said NASA
astronomer Stephen Maran. ''The question is, is this more of
the same or is this the breakthrough we're all waiting
for?''
Sagan said there was about a 50-50 chance that the body
would turn out actually to be a planet. If true, the
discovery raises a host of questions about how planets and
pulsars form, Sagan said in a telephone interview.
The search for other planets and other solar systems has
been difficult because telescopes on Earth are not powerful
enough to detect relatively small planets circling much
brighter stars that are so far away it takes light,
traveling at 186,000 miles per second, years to reach Earth.
In the new report in the British journal Nature, Lyne and
colleagues used a radio telescope at the Nuffield Radio
Astronomy Laboratories of the University of Manchester in
Cheshire, Britain, to study a star known as pulsar 1829-10.
When the cores of massive stars exhaust their nuclear fuel,
outward radiation can no longer offset the inward pull of
gravity. As a result, such stars can suddenly collapse and
explode, leaving a small core just a few miles across that
is so dense normal atoms are crushed into a sphere of
uncharged neutrons.
Spinning neutron stars are called pulsars because they emit
regular flashes of radiation as they spin about in the
depths of space like cosmic lighthouses.
In 1985, Lyne and his colleagues discovered the pulsar about
30,000 light years from our solar system near the center of
the Milky Way. A light year, the distance light travels in a
year, is about 6 trillion miles.
The researchers have been studying the radio signals it
emits and intensified their observations in an attempt to
understand what appeared to be an irregularity in its pulse
every six months. About six weeks ago, the astronomers
began to suspect that the irregularity was caused by the
gravitational pull of an orbiting body.
''It took a few days to dawn on us. We were worried there
might be something wrong with our equipment,'' Lyne said.
''But we were very excited when we realized what this
implied.''
After accounting for other possible explanations, the
scientists concluded the oscillation was caused by a planet
orbiting the star in a highly circular orbit every six
months.
The planet appears to be about twice the diameter and 10
times the mass of Earth and is about the same distance from
its sun as Venus is from our sun.
The astronomers are continuing to study the pulsar to learn
more about the possible planet and determine whether there
are any other planets orbiting the star, Lyne said.
''There's an indication in our data of some effects that
could be attributable to other planets. They would be
further away from the star,'' he said.
In an article accompanying the new report, David Black of
the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, said that if
the planet is confirmed it could challenge existing theories
about planet and pulsar formation.
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