NASA's New Planet-Hunting Telescope Finds Two Mystery Objects

[All Seeing Eye]

NASA's new planet-hunting telescope finds two new mystery objects, unlike stars or planets


WASHINGTON - NASA's new planet-hunting telescope has found two mystery objects that are too hot to be planets and too small to be stars.
The Kepler Telescope, launched in March, discovered the two new heavenly bodies, each circling its own star. Telescope chief scientist Bill Borucki of NASA said the objects are thousands of degrees hotter than the stars they circle. That means they probably aren't planets. They are bigger and hotter than planets in our solar system, including dwarf planets.
"The universe keeps making strange things stranger than we can think of in our imagination," said Jon Morse, head of astrophysics for NASA.
The new discoveries don't quite fit into any definition of known astronomical objects, and so far don't have a classification of their own. Details about the mystery objects were presented Monday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Anyone else got any ideas what they could be?

 

[Jadzia]

Perhaps a planet with something as wonderful as naturally occurring cold fusion?

Whatever they are, I propose that we call them starlets.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Hmmm. The article has two suggestions:

There are two leading theories for what the objects might be and those theories cover both ends of the cosmic life cycle:


-Rowe suggests they are newly born planets. New planets have extremely high temperatures, and in this case Rowe speculates they might be only about 200 million years old.

-Ronald Gilliland of the Space Telescope Science Institute says they could be white dwarf stars that are dying and stripping off their outer shells and shrinking.

The article doesn't mention the class of star those things are orbiting, nor where in the night sky the star might be found. That info might be useful.

Whatever they are, I propose that we call them starlets.

Well, if Jason Rowe is right... [puts on sunglasses] ... they have a bright future ahead of them.

 

[sojourner]

"YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAOOOHHHH!" - The Who.

 

[kes7]

It's an anomaly! Its purpose is to attract and destroy starships, kind of like a bug zapper for warp-capable species.

(Oh wait, this thread is about real life? Never mind. )

 

[Squiggy]

Anyone else got any ideas what they could be?

Clearly it's Nibiru and his friend Steve.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Anyone else got any ideas what they could be?

Clearly it's Nibiru and his friend Steve.

 

[Zachary Smith]

Maybe they are planets with large concentrations of fissionable material at their cores.

 

[Data Holmes]

Maybe they are planets with large concentrations of fissionable material at their cores.

Would be interesting if they are perhaps made of a substance which will have potential to be mined and used for power/propulsion systems...

 

[sojourner]

Yea, hopefully we won't have to displace any indigenous blue people.

 

[Zachary Smith]

Yea, hopefully we won't have to displace any indigenous blue people.

Well, the tall one with the cigarette looks like Sigourney Weaver. Danged if I knows who the rest of them "Sky-People is though!
But DON'T they look REAL--almost like you could jes' reach out an' TOUCH them!

 

[Jadzia]

Would be interesting if they are perhaps made of a substance which will have potential to be mined and used for power/propulsion systems...

at >15000'C, they are not going to be made of chemical compounds. More like balls of plasma.

Maybe the planet's former residents were fool enough to build a huge particle accelerator, and unwittingly turned their planet and its moon into strangelet matter. The heat we see being the energy given out in the cascading conversion process.

 

[chardman]

Anyone else got any ideas what they could be?

Clearly it's Nibiru and his friend Steve.

That's: Nibiru and his long-time companion Steve.

 

[Squiggy]

I should've said "friend".

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

Maybe the planet's former residents were fool enough to build a huge particle accelerator, and unwittingly turned their planet and its moon into strangelet matter. The heat we see being the energy given out in the cascading conversion process.

I think you've solved the mystery to the drake equation

 

[Meredith]

NASA's new planet-hunting telescope finds two new mystery objects, unlike stars or planets


WASHINGTON - NASA's new planet-hunting telescope has found two mystery objects that are too hot to be planets and too small to be stars.
The Kepler Telescope, launched in March, discovered the two new heavenly bodies, each circling its own star. Telescope chief scientist Bill Borucki of NASA said the objects are thousands of degrees hotter than the stars they circle. That means they probably aren't planets. They are bigger and hotter than planets in our solar system, including dwarf planets.
"The universe keeps making strange things stranger than we can think of in our imagination," said Jon Morse, head of astrophysics for NASA.
The new discoveries don't quite fit into any definition of known astronomical objects, and so far don't have a classification of their own. Details about the mystery objects were presented Monday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Anyone else got any ideas what they could be?

Matrioshka Micronode

http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4a48cf99d24c8

 

[ThankQ]

If they're that hot, how have we not detected them before? Shouldn't they be plain as day in infrared?

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

Finally, a "Normal" Exoplanet
http://www.universetoday.com/2010/03/18/finally-a-normal-exoplanet

Chalk up another exoplanet discovery for the CoRoT satellite. But this planet, while a gas giant, could have temperatures cool enough to host liquid water. Corot-9b orbits a sun-like star at a distance similar to Mercury – one of the largest orbits of any extrasolar planet yet found, and may have an interior that closely resembles Jupiter and Saturn. “This is a normal, temperate exoplanet just like dozens we already know, but this is the first whose properties we can study in depth,” said Claire Moutou, who is part of the international team of 60 astronomers that made the discovery. “It is bound to become a Rosetta stone in exoplanet research.”

Corot-9b (unofficial nickname Carrot Nimby) regularly passes in front of its star, located 1,500 light-years away from Earth towards the constellation of Serpens (the Snake), allowing astronomers to view the planet for 8 hours at a time. The transits occur every 95 days