A couple of very interesting kepler planets

[ScienceRocks]

1. Kepler 57c which has a MASS of 6.95 times JUPITER. What really blows the mind out of the back of the brain case is the radius! 1.55 the radius of earth. Normally the mass for such a radius would be 5 to 30 times earth. NOT over 2,200 times! WTF!

This isn't alone either!!!!

Kepler 59b which has a 2.05 Jupiter. A Jupiter right? WRONG, this has a radius of 1.1 earths or 10% larger. What on earth is this thing made of?

Kepler 57b is also very interesting, but is likely not a super earth.

Kepler Discoveries

 

[waltky]

104 exoplanets discovered with Kepler telescope...

Kepler Space Telescope Discovers 104 Exoplanets
July 19, 2016 - Astronomers say they have discovered 104 exoplanets, two of which could support life. They orbit the M type dwarf star K2-72, which is 181 light-years away.

The planets, which were discovered by using NASA’s Kepler space telescope, are 20 to 50 percent larger than Earth in diameter, astronomers said. They are much closer to their star, which is half the size of our sun and much dimmer, than the planets of our solar system with orbits of between 5.5 and 24 days.

Artist's impression of the Kepler spacecraft in one of its observing configurations​

Two of the planets, researchers said, are exposed to irradiation levels similar to Earth's. The two planets, calledK2-72c and K2-72e, lie in an area where liquid water could exist. K2-72c orbits its star every 15 days and is only 10 percent warmer than Earth despite its proximity to its star. On the other hand K2-72e orbits every 24 days and is likely six percent cooler than Earth.

The planets were discovered indirectly, “by measuring the subtle dip in a star's brightness caused by a planet passing in front of its star.” The discoveries bring the total number of exoplanets discovered by Kepler to more than 2,300 since it was launched in March of 2009. That accounts for nearly two thirds of all confirmed exoplanet discoveries. The discoveries are published online in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.

Kepler Space Telescope Discovers 104 Exoplanets

See also:

Looking to Exploding Stars for Clues About Life on Ancient Earth
July 15, 2016 | WASHINGTON — Scientists know that two massive stars exploded about 300 light years from Earth less than 10 million years ago. Both explosions - the first between 8.7 and 6.5 million years ago, and the second about 3 million years later - happened during the age of large mammals - mastodons, ground sloths, bears, and the ancestors of humans. During this time, the Earth was going through major geological and environmental changes. There were even some minor extinctions.

Scientists have long wondered if those two explosions played a role in any of these terrestrial changes. Physicist Brian Thomas of Washburn University in Kansas modeled the effects of the supernova to try to find out.

A cosmic shower

A supernova is the explosive death of a massive star. These interstellar bombs don’t just spew visible light in all directions. They also emit high-energy light such as gamma rays and more massive particles, known as cosmic rays. These pieces of cosmic shrapnel can do damage to planetary atmospheres and lifeforms too close to the action. Since nothing travels faster than light, Thomas and his colleagues first looked what would happen when the light output from the blast reached Earth. Luckily for the lifeforms during this time, the dangerous gamma rays were relatively weak. But the visible light was equivalent to the brightness of the full moon and remained so for a few weeks. “Based on the research on light pollution,” Thomas explains to VOA, “we found that the amount of light we would get from the supernova would probably be enough to have a small effect but not a dramatic effect.” The extra light pollution possibly disrupted the sleep or hunting patterns of nocturnal animals for a brief period.

The Crab Nebula is the result of a stellar explosion which you can see with a pair of binoculars now. In 1054, humans everywhere thought a new star had appeared out of nowhere. Luckily for them, the explosion happened 6,500 light years away.​

Not far behind the light came the cosmic rays. Since these particles are more massive, they can penetrate the ground and water pretty easily. They generate radioactive particles as they enter the atmosphere. The dose of radiation from this cosmic fallout would have been equivalent to the dose delivered by a single CT scan. So Thomas says the biological effects, if any, would have been minor. The most significant effect occurred in the atmosphere. The cosmic rays would have increased the electrical charge of the lower atmosphere. It’s similar to when you drag your feet on the carpet and a static charge builds up. This extra charge needs somewhere to go, so you touch a metal doorknob, creating a spark. The only place the atmosphere has to discharge is the ground below. So, lightning strikes would have increased significantly over a period of 20,000 years. Thomas isn’t sure what effects this would have on the environment or climate. That is going to be addressed in future work.

Environmental effects

 

[yiostheoy]

1. Kepler 57c which has a MASS of 6.95 times JUPITER. What really blows the mind out of the back of the brain case is the radius! 1.55 the radius of earth. Normally the mass for such a radius would be 5 to 30 times earth. NOT over 2,200 times! WTF!

This isn't alone either!!!!

Kepler 59b which has a 2.05 Jupiter. A Jupiter right? WRONG, this has a radius of 1.1 earths or 10% larger. What on earth is this thing made of?

Kepler 57b is also very interesting, but is likely not a super earth.

Kepler Discoveries

Well if the measurements are accurate then the planets would have to be made up of compressed Uranium.

I am guessing the measurements are off then because it does not pass the reasonableness test.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - It must be aliens...

Tabby's Star Gets Even More Mysterious
August 09, 2016 - What the heck is going on around Tabby's star? If you follow such things, you'll remember when KIC 8462852, or Tabby’s star -- named after the woman who discovered it, Tabitha Boyajian -- first exploded onto the nerdscape in October of 2015. That's when scientists scouring through data from NASA's Kepler Mission first noticed its weird behavior.

That star sure is weird

The Kepler mission "is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone and determine the fraction of the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy that might have such planets." It does it by measuring the light from far away stars, and noting as planets pass between the star and the Kepler photometer. So far, Kepler has discovered more than 2,700 stars that have planet candidates in their orbit, and it's just getting started. But while one group of scientists was digging through the Kepler data, they discovered an anomaly: Tabby's star — 1,480 light years away in the constellation Cygnus — was not behaving at all like a star its size and age, but instead, was dimmer than it should be and also periodically flickering. Those findings were published last October at the online site "arXiv" in an articled called "Planet Hunters X. KIC 8462852 – Where’s the flux?". The basic premise was: "We've noticed this happening, but we don't really have any idea why."

Tabby's star in Infrared and ultraviolet light​

The team suggested a few of the most likely "whys" in that original paper. "We presented an extensive set of scenarios to explain the occurrence of the dips," they wrote, "most of which are unsuccessful in explaining the observations in their entirety. However, of the various considered, we find that the break-up of a exocomet provides the most compelling explanation." The article called for a lot more study and observation of Tabby's star so astronomers could unravel the mystery. Science scratched its head, said "that's a good idea" and agreed to take a closer look. That would have been that, except for the fact that we humans are what we are. Predictably, the web reacted in the same way as creationists trying to get intelligent design into public schools: "We don't know what it is" the web screamed, "IT MUST BE ALIENS!"

Whoa, Tex!

But none of the scientific studies so far mention the possibility of aliens, or extraterrestrial civilizations. But that hasn't stopped sites like Sky and Telescope, and SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) Institute from at least entertaining the idea that it was an artificial construct. It's fun to think about, but — buzz kill that science is — the answer to this puzzle isn't likely to be a Dyson sphere. Unfortunately, knowing what it isn't doesn't do us much good and, since the original article, there has been just a trickle of research about KIC 8462852. The most important advance on the story came out in November and threw big shade at the exocomet theory.

Okay, that star is REALLY weird

Last week, a new paper on Tabby's star came out and a new set of astronomers found new weirdness and came to the unsettling conclusion that "No known or proposed stellar phenomena can fully explain all aspects of the observed light curve."

Say what?

See also:

Watch a Comet Plunge Toward the Sun at 2 Million KPH
August 05, 2016 - Astronomers have observed a comet hurtling toward the sun at a staggering 2.1 million kilometers per hour.

The images were captured at the European Space Agency and NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, also called SOHO. The comet made its plunge to the sun Wednesday and Thursday, NASA said. Comets are “chunks of ice and dust that orbit the sun, usually on highly elliptical orbits that carry them far beyond the orbit of Pluto at their farthest points.”

A comet is seen hurtling toward the sun at over 2 million kilometers per hour.​

NASA said this comet, which was first seen on August 1, was in the Kreutz family of comets that broke off huge comets hundreds of years ago. The comet did not impact the sun, but was “whipped around it,” NASA said. However, it likely was “torn apart and vaporized by the intense forces near the sun.”

Watch a Comet Plunge Toward the Sun at 2 Million KPH

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Granny says, "Dat's right - It must be aliens...

Tabby's Star Gets Even More Mysterious
August 09, 2016 - What the heck is going on around Tabby's star? If you follow such things, you'll remember when KIC 8462852, or Tabby’s star -- named after the woman who discovered it, Tabitha Boyajian -- first exploded onto the nerdscape in October of 2015. That's when scientists scouring through data from NASA's Kepler Mission first noticed its weird behavior.

That star sure is weird

The Kepler mission "is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone and determine the fraction of the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy that might have such planets." It does it by measuring the light from far away stars, and noting as planets pass between the star and the Kepler photometer. So far, Kepler has discovered more than 2,700 stars that have planet candidates in their orbit, and it's just getting started. But while one group of scientists was digging through the Kepler data, they discovered an anomaly: Tabby's star — 1,480 light years away in the constellation Cygnus — was not behaving at all like a star its size and age, but instead, was dimmer than it should be and also periodically flickering. Those findings were published last October at the online site "arXiv" in an articled called "Planet Hunters X. KIC 8462852 – Where’s the flux?". The basic premise was: "We've noticed this happening, but we don't really have any idea why."

Tabby's star in Infrared and ultraviolet light​

The team suggested a few of the most likely "whys" in that original paper. "We presented an extensive set of scenarios to explain the occurrence of the dips," they wrote, "most of which are unsuccessful in explaining the observations in their entirety. However, of the various considered, we find that the break-up of a exocomet provides the most compelling explanation." The article called for a lot more study and observation of Tabby's star so astronomers could unravel the mystery. Science scratched its head, said "that's a good idea" and agreed to take a closer look. That would have been that, except for the fact that we humans are what we are. Predictably, the web reacted in the same way as creationists trying to get intelligent design into public schools: "We don't know what it is" the web screamed, "IT MUST BE ALIENS!"

Whoa, Tex!

But none of the scientific studies so far mention the possibility of aliens, or extraterrestrial civilizations. But that hasn't stopped sites like Sky and Telescope, and SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) Institute from at least entertaining the idea that it was an artificial construct. It's fun to think about, but — buzz kill that science is — the answer to this puzzle isn't likely to be a Dyson sphere. Unfortunately, knowing what it isn't doesn't do us much good and, since the original article, there has been just a trickle of research about KIC 8462852. The most important advance on the story came out in November and threw big shade at the exocomet theory.

Okay, that star is REALLY weird

Last week, a new paper on Tabby's star came out and a new set of astronomers found new weirdness and came to the unsettling conclusion that "No known or proposed stellar phenomena can fully explain all aspects of the observed light curve."

Say what?

See also:

Watch a Comet Plunge Toward the Sun at 2 Million KPH
August 05, 2016 - Astronomers have observed a comet hurtling toward the sun at a staggering 2.1 million kilometers per hour.

The images were captured at the European Space Agency and NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, also called SOHO. The comet made its plunge to the sun Wednesday and Thursday, NASA said. Comets are “chunks of ice and dust that orbit the sun, usually on highly elliptical orbits that carry them far beyond the orbit of Pluto at their farthest points.”

A comet is seen hurtling toward the sun at over 2 million kilometers per hour.​

NASA said this comet, which was first seen on August 1, was in the Kreutz family of comets that broke off huge comets hundreds of years ago. The comet did not impact the sun, but was “whipped around it,” NASA said. However, it likely was “torn apart and vaporized by the intense forces near the sun.”

Watch a Comet Plunge Toward the Sun at 2 Million KPH

There's something very strange about Tabby's Star

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right...

... dat's why ya should never give a cat...

... a star to play with."