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(Discover) Cool Two more binary star planets discovered. George Lucas issa wanted for questioning   (blogs.discovermagazine.com) divider line 13
More: Cool, Binary Star, binary systems, outer planets, Kepler, red giants, planetary system, perturbation theory, main sequence star  
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1319 clicks; posted to Geek » on 13 Jan 2012 at 7:08 PM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!



13 Comments   (+0 »)
   
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FishyFred [TotalFark]
2012-01-13 06:49:13 PM
No. Don't you dare speaka his name.
 
way south
2012-01-13 07:13:39 PM
There are 10 kinds of people who understand binary star systems...
 
PartTimeBuddha
2012-01-13 07:16:38 PM
Honestly? I like this.

But we're finding too many planets, too quickly. It'll take the wonder out of things.

I say, fewer planets. Let's keep things sensible.
 
skyotter
2012-01-13 07:21:26 PM
Binary stars are very common in the Milky Way: roughly half of all stars are binary

never tell me the odds!
 
JanusofZeal [TotalFark]
2012-01-13 07:30:45 PM
PartTimeBuddha: Honestly? I like this.

But we're finding too many planets, too quickly. It'll take the wonder out of things.

I say, fewer planets. Let's keep things sensible.

We already knocked 10% of the planets that were in our solar system off the list. It's because of people like YOU that Pluto was downgraded, you bastard!

/It's still a planet to me!
 
Meethos
2012-01-13 08:05:03 PM
Hey, I get to remember these guys existed! Link (new window)
 
theorellior [TotalFark]
2012-01-13 08:47:28 PM
FishyFred: No. Don't you dare speaka his name.

Cab Calloway?

images.icanhascheezburger.com
 
Darth_Lukecash [TotalFark]
2012-01-13 08:48:51 PM
Lucas got a lot of crap from scientist for having a planet around a binary suns.
 
theorellior [TotalFark]
2012-01-13 09:05:30 PM
Darth_Lukecash: Lucas got a lot of crap from scientist for having a planet around a binary suns.

Really? I would think that Tatooine would simply orbit its primaries as a single point source.

Looking at the iconic "sunset" shot, the two stars are basically 2.5x their apparent diameters away from each other. Let's assume each is a solar mass, so they'd be 3.5 million kilometers apart. Two primaries of a solar mass each means the Goldilock band is probably 1.4x further away, which means Earth would be at 210 million km. Put Tatooine on the near edge, say 200 million km, since it's a "desert planet". That means there's around 60x difference in separation between Tatooine and its primaries than the primaries from each other.

I'd say the only problem with Lucas' vision is that the primaries would probably be distorted into egg shapes due to being so close to each other's gravity wells.
 
Neondistraction
2012-01-13 09:58:48 PM
theorellior: Darth_Lukecash: Lucas got a lot of crap from scientist for having a planet around a binary suns.

Really? I would think that Tatooine would simply orbit its primaries as a single point source.

Looking at the iconic "sunset" shot, the two stars are basically 2.5x their apparent diameters away from each other. Let's assume each is a solar mass, so they'd be 3.5 million kilometers apart. Two primaries of a solar mass each means the Goldilock band is probably 1.4x further away, which means Earth would be at 210 million km. Put Tatooine on the near edge, say 200 million km, since it's a "desert planet". That means there's around 60x difference in separation between Tatooine and its primaries than the primaries from each other.

I'd say the only problem with Lucas' vision is that the primaries would probably be distorted into egg shapes due to being so close to each other's gravity wells.

Until fairly recently, most scientists didn't think it was possible for a planet to exist in a binary system. They figured it would never be able to maintain a stable orbit and would be torn apart or pulled into one of the stars. It wasn't until the last couple years that they actually located a binary system with a planet(s) that they realized they were wrong.

Of course lets not give Lucas too much credit here, he just happened to be right about this one thing. You throw enough things out there and eventually you get one right.
 
Suede head
2012-01-14 07:20:52 AM
theorellior: Darth_Lukecash: Lucas got a lot of crap from scientist for having a planet around a binary suns.

Really? I would think that Tatooine would simply orbit its primaries as a single point source.

Looking at the iconic "sunset" shot, the two stars are basically 2.5x their apparent diameters away from each other. Let's assume each is a solar mass, so they'd be 3.5 million kilometers apart. Two primaries of a solar mass each means the Goldilock band is probably 1.4x further away, which means Earth would be at 210 million km. Put Tatooine on the near edge, say 200 million km, since it's a "desert planet". That means there's around 60x difference in separation between Tatooine and its primaries than the primaries from each other.

I'd say the only problem with Lucas' vision is that the primaries would probably be distorted into egg shapes due to being so close to each other's gravity wells.

They appeared to be close together but one could be bigger and further away.
 
taurusowner
2012-01-14 05:32:43 PM
So does "discover" now mean "conjecture about what might be possible given a small amount of known data"? In the end, it will all be nothing but flawed computer models of what the scientists think some radiation sensory data might mean. Call me when they have pictures, preferably visible spectrum pictures.
 
jonny_q
2012-01-15 09:26:07 AM
Neondistraction: Of course lets not give Lucas too much credit here, he just happened to be right about this one thing. You throw enough things out there and eventually you get one right.

I'm pretty sure all he was doing was putting two yellowish shiny things in the sky. I doubt there was any math or science to it.
 
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