Astronomers discover "a mammoth orb"... XO-3b

Browsing through Google News I stumbled upon this:

Astronomers Discover Giant Planet

Alright so i start reading...

The planet known as XO-3b is "an oddity" compared to the more than 200 extrasolar planets found so far, said Peter McCullough, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.

It's odd... got it... why?

"It's the largest and most massive planet yet found in such a close orbit, and given the proximity of the orbit to the star, we were surprised to find that the orbit is not circular but significantly elliptical," Mr McCullough said.

It doesn't orbit in a round motion... ok... not odd enough for me. This article was rubbish lol... so i googled "XO-3b" to find out what was the real oddity and found this:

XO-3b: Supersized planet or oasis in the 'brown dwarf desert'?

It continues the debate on how to classify a brown dwarf and is it one etc... then i find this like tidbit thrown in:

What also makes XO-3b intriguing is the fact that it's a "transiting planet," meaning it passes in front of its star during each orbit.

So i re-read in the same article... at the top it states:

The latest find from an international planet-hunting team of amateur and professional astronomers is one of the oddest extrasolar planets ever cataloged -- a mammoth orb more than 13 times the mass of Jupiter that orbits its star in less than four days.

Now i know hardly anything about astronomy... but something that massive orbiting every four days in FRONT of a star and not even circular does not sound right lol...

Is this really as odd as i think it is? Or are there ALOT of other examples floating around out there? I am just looking for some clarification... or am i right and this is something VERY peculiar?

*glances sheepishly towards the heavens, only to remember there is a roof on this house*

It is an astronomical oddity, but the fact that it's a super-giant and is close to it's
parent star is not to unusual.

Gas giants, micro-Jovians and Super-giants that orbit close to there parent star are called
'Hot Jupiters' and actually make up a significant amount of the extra-solar planets that we know of.


As for its elliptical orbit, well I'm betting it's just a side effect of it's own gravitational strength that causes it.

What about orbiting in front of the star and not around it though?

Originally posted by SilentShadow
What about orbiting in front of the star and not around it though?

It does orbit around it, however not all planets orbit take them in front of there planet,
at least from a vantage point on Earth.

Transiting planets are planets with orbits that take them in front of their star from our perspective.

SilentShadow --

You're getting a little confused on the "transit" issue. This planet orbits it's star like a normal plant (albeit in an elliptical orbit and rather quickly). The term "transit" in this case means that the planet's orbit takes it in front of its sun relative to observers on Earth. That's what the "XO Project" is all about. It detects new planets by looking for the ones that transit their star, relative to the Earth, thus passing between the star and Earth. They detect transiting planets because the planet will cause its star to dim slightly as it transits -- sort of like a mini eclipse.

According to the XO project's website, they can learn a lot from planets which transit their star, such as analyzing the star's light after it passes through the atmosphere of the planet. By using spectromemters here on Earth that starlight can help tell us something about the planet's atmosphere.

Her's a link to the XO Project's website:
www-int.stsci.edu...

Edit:
iori_komei -- you beat me to the transit explanation by less than a minute...thanks for your input.

[edit on 1-6-2007 by Soylent Green Is People]

Ahhhh ok... i understand the orbiting now... thanks guys for clearing up what that means exactly.

Not quite as odd as i thought although still an interesting find for those astronomers.

The fast eliptical orbit however is suggestive of a capture by that sun.

As for its elliptical orbit, well I'm betting it's just a side effect of it's own gravitational strength that causes it.

I disagree with Irori_Komei that a 4 day eliptical orbit is not a side effect at all. The 4 day orbit of such a massive object indicates the incredible speed it must have and I suggest that speed is indicative of the capture of a massive object which was transiting through interstellar space at speed.

If you accept that argument then you have to ask yourself how many other objects travel through our solar system from interstellar regions and what is their origin ?

Before totally dismissing this point, ponder where our own quite massive Trans Neptune objects (TNOs) came from ?




Should we not consider the possibility that many massive bodies do transit interplanetary space. Iroi_Komei is a big proponent of dark matter in interstellar space. It would be surprising if he now dismisses the possibility of large interstellar bodies wandering between solar systems.

[edit on 1-6-2007 by sy.gunson]

Originally posted by sy.gunson
The fast eliptical orbit however is suggestive of a capture by that sun.

I disagree with Iori_Komei that a 4 day elliptical orbit is not a side effect at all. The 4 day orbit of such a massive object indicates the incredible speed it must have and I suggest that speed is indicative of the capture of a massive object which was transiting through interstellar space at speed.

Perhaps so, but considering it's size, it's own gravitation causing it just happened to be
the first thing that came to mind.

I don't claim to know, nor do I think I will know anytime soon.

If you accept that argument then you have to ask yourself how many other objects travel through our solar system from interstellar regions and what is their origin ?

Well, how big are we talking?

I mean I'd imagine quite a lot of small asteroids enter our Solar System, but planet
sized things, well I wont say it's impossible, I mean heck I know there is a gas giant out
there traveling at a significant fraction of c that's headed towards intergalactic space,
so I don't think it's impossible that planets may enter a solar system and get caught in
the local stars gravity, but I don't think that it makes up a large percent of planets.

Before totally dismissing this point, ponder where our own quite massive Trans Neptune objects (TNOs) came from ?

Well, considering there are over four-quadrillion TNO's I would'nt be surprised if
some of them our not native to Sol, but I think most if not all of the larger ones are remnants
from our Solar Systems own formation.

Should we not consider the possibility that many massive bodies do transit interplanetary space. Iori_Komei is a big proponent of dark matter in interstellar space. It would be surprising if he now dismisses the possibility of large interstellar bodies wandering between solar systems.

Like I said, I don't think that there are'nt planets that drift in interstellar, heck even
intergalactic space, but I doubt that very many of them actually ever enter a single
Solar System, that is in a 11Ly sphere, you may have six planets that entered the Solar System, but you would'nt find more than two in the same Solar System.

Well, how big are we talking?

Well the size of XO-3b could be an indication of how big. I understand that XO-3b is much bigger than Jupiter.

One suggestion about the origin of such objects/planetoids is that perhaps they are the debris of super nova ?

These debates are worthwhile, because they are like the theoretical sketch pads of science. As we debate the interpretations of data we are making a contribution to science equally as valid as astronomers who record the raw data.

Originally posted by sy.gunson
Well the size of XO-3b could be an indication of how big. I understand that XO-3b is much bigger than Jupiter.

One suggestion about the origin of such objects/planetoids is that perhaps they are the debris of super nova ?

Ok, so Super-giants than, well it would'nt surprise me if some super-giants had'nt found
there way out of there home system and into another, especially if they formed far
enough out and/or they survived the death of there parent star.

If I remember correctly, and I am trying to find the article, because it was really interesting,
the gas giant (may have been a dwarf star, can't remember, read it over a year ago)
was actually accelerated to it's relativistic speed because of a nova event.

These debates are worthwhile, because they are like the theoretical sketch pads of science. As we debate the interpretations of data we are making a contribution to science equally as valid as astronomers who record the raw data.

I concur.