or as the universe calls it, "breakfast"

poonesfarm: The entire starfleet couldn't destroy the whole planet. It'd take a thousand ships with more fire power than I've--

Turn the ship around.

The Onion is prophetic: 1,500 light years away

[www.7641.com image 300x404]

/kidding, sounds pretty cool... and spiffy artist's rendition



'That planet will explode in 30 days.'

wait until nibiru comes a knocking.

then we're going to see some serious shiat.

ManateeGag: And Spock did nothing to stop it.

This.

So what, subby? We all do that ALL THE TIME. You don't hear US going on about it.

Anyone have a link for this story from a real, actually interesting to read science blog?

/Ain't giving Wamplerized Astronomy any more clicks

I_Am_Weasel: I do not want to be around when an entire planet gets the vapours.

I dunno, could be pretty kinky. But then again who knows what they look like...

Professor Hubert Farnsworth: We - by which I mean you - will have to rush him to his ancient home world, which will soon erupt in an orgy of invertebrate sex.
Fry: Oh, baby! I'm THERE!
Leela: Fry, do you even understand the word "invertebrate"?
Fry: Nope, but that's not the word I'm interested in.

-- knows what its like to lose a whole farkin planet.

Damn, that artist is talented.

Deviant art gallery (new window)

Approves.

Clash City Farker: [4.bp.blogspot.com image 400x303]

-- knows what its like to lose a whole farkin planet.

Did he check under the couch cushions or in his other pair of pants?

I wonder if this planet's day is longer than it's year.

not impressed

I wonder what subby's reaction to stars going supernova is?

SN1987a goes boom: I wonder what subby's reaction to stars going supernova is?

I wonder what subby's reaction is to the fate of our planet once our sun hits the red giant stage.

Handsome B. Wonderful: SN1987a goes boom: I wonder what subby's reaction to stars going supernova is?

I wonder what subby's reaction is to the fate of our planet once our sun hits the red giant stage.

I wonder what subby's reaction is to a double rainbow.

I'm not saying it's the Inhibitors.

But it's the Inhibitors.

Doctor Who did it.

*a whole farkin' planet*

What is it farkin?

Seefras 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2 are sympathetic; Trance unimpressed.

what is more impressive is watching entire solar systems being vaporised by an o-type star light years away. I forget where i saw that...

..googles...

Link (new window) - i love the internet.

I have another suggestion... If you're making antimatter in large quantities you could build a power plant that basically dips one end of a thermal engine into a coronasphere and aim the exhaust into the deep dark. Once you're up to that scale of construction you might actually use a small planet as your raw building material.

/Think BIG thoughts.
//Or else you're just copying

Surely that planet is sublimating, not boiling or evaporating.

Bondith: Surely that planet is sublimating, not boiling or evaporating.

I was going to go with ablating.

/link obviously hot

...would like to know more.

/Can't believe no one posted this yet...

old_toole: how this planet would form in the first place?
Was the sun smaller / cooler M years ago? Could a planet this close be there and survive before the sun ignited? Or was it just captured relatively recently?


First and foremost, I'll answer with an "I don't know." There's probably a whole bunch of things that could explain what's happening, but if I had to make an educated guess based on the assumption that it's a vaporizing planet, I'd say the planet's been sloooooowly spiraling inward over a very long period of time. While stars can burn hotter as they age, this planet would probably have been long gone (or never formed to begin with) if it initially formed close enough to boil.

I doubt that the star captured anything recently; it's actually pretty hard for a star to capture an incoming object. Conservation of energy requires an object flying into a solar system to zip right on back out once it's done a drive through the neighborhood. It can, however, interact with other stuff while in transit; so your guess about "recent" activity might not be too far off.

If (and this is all speculation here) an inner planet formed that was very close to the star, but not close enough to boil, then the planet could remain stable, if squishy, for billions of years. If, however, something were to happen to that planet, say an incoming object smashes into it earth-moon-formation style, the impact could easily knock the planet into a very elliptical orbit. From here, a few things can happen. For example, the corona of a star can extend for millions of miles, and if the planet is light enough and close enough to begin with, the corona could conceivably induce a significant drag force on the planet during its perihelion passes (or at least, during periodic solar flare activity), gradually shrinking its orbit over hundreds of millions of years. Over time, the planet would get continually closer and hotter, until it finally captures enough energy to boil away. Then, it's just accelerated death and doom; the planet will lose both mass and orbital velocity at an increasing rate until it's completely gone.

Just a guess, anyway. Anyone elses' hypothesis is just as good as mine.

It's too remote for an effective demonstration but don't worry, we will deal with your rebel friends soon enough.