Most Eccentric Planet ever Known Flashes Astronomers with Reflected Light

The light flash was from a planet known as HD 20782 which is about 117 light-years from Earth and was produced by star light bouncing of its atmosphere on its closest approach to its parent star in it's wild eccentric orbit , astronomers say analysis of the light will allow them to understand the composition of the planet's atmosphere and how the extremes of its orbit effect it.

The planet has the most elliptical orbit of a star yet seen with the orbit at its furthest 2.5 times the distance between the sun and Earth and at its closest ,as it slingshots around the star, closer than that of Mercury .... wild ride !

HD 20782 has the most eccentric orbit known, measured at an eccentricity of .96. This means that the planet moves in a nearly flattened ellipse, traveling a long path far from its star and then making a fast and furious slingshot around the star at its closest approach.

The reflected light could tell researchers more about how the atmosphere of a planet like HD 20782 responds when it spends most of its time far away from its star, "but then has a very close approach where it's flash-heated by the star," Kane said.

Graph showing the extent of the orbit of planet HD 20782 in relation to our solar system.


There's also the question of how the planet came to have such an elliptical orbit.

There are few possible "suspects" in the case of HD 20782, Kane noted. It could be that there was originally more than one planet in the system, and one planet developed an unstable orbit that brought the two planets too close together. This collision or near-collision might have ejected one planet from the system entirely and pushed HD 20782 on its eccentric path. The planet is in a binary star system, so it might also be the case that the second star in the binary made a close approach that threw HD 20782 off a more circular orbit.
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Gotta love the Galaxy , it never stops giving.

Nibiru ! they found you!!

Do planetary bodies/comets on long elliptical orbits slow down once they reach the furthest point of their orbit? As in, is there a huge speed difference between it taking that tight turn and then when it is going almost straight towards the star?

analysis of the light will allow them to understand the composition of the planet's atmosphere and how the extremes of its orbit effect it.

There's something amazing about how much we can learn by simply sitting on our rock looking out.

produced by star light bouncing of its atmosphere on its closest approach to its parent star

I am too small and my time is too short, and the universe too vast. I'll never see it all.

Filled with joyous wonder and bitter disappointed at the same time!

Wow, so the flash was only 117 Earth years ago. Like yesterday.

Seeing the planet is part of a Binary Star system, perhaps the other Star is exerting its gravity onto the planet and pulling it into an elliptical orbit, as the two stars use their gravity to fight over the planet.
Is the planet a gas giant or Rocky, I wonder.
How close are the Stars?
Are the Stars the same size or not? Different sizes would indicate differing gravity effects due to mass....one would think anyway.

a reply to: BelowLowAnnouncement

Do planetary bodies/comets on long elliptical orbits slow down once they reach the furthest point of their orbit?

Yes. Their speed relative to their primary changes dramatically between perhelion and aphelion. Think of it like this, throw a ball straight up. Is it moving faster at the top of its trajectory, or at the bottom. Exactly the same situation.

Maybe it has a Horseshoe orbit around the star and another planet, likes Earth's other moon:

www.iflscience.com...

It will be great when science and space travel pushes us to the point where we could go to distance cars just as fast as metro trains take us around the city. Sadly I don't think I'd be alive for it but nonetheless it certainly would be amazing. As much as I love to see the graphs and all I'd love to see some of these planets up close and personal

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: BelowLowAnnouncement

Do planetary bodies/comets on long elliptical orbits slow down once they reach the furthest point of their orbit?

Yes. Their speed relative to their primary changes dramatically between perhelion and aphelion. Think of it like this, throw a ball straight up. Is it moving faster at the top of its trajectory, or at the bottom. Exactly the same situation.

Beautiful. The ladies will be fainting when I pull those two out during Scrabble. Thanks for the answer Phage.