Mysterious Distant Planet Disappearing Before Our Eyes

This is a planet that is disapearing and wont be seen for much time. Do stars always make such planets vanish and will earth vanish one day? This must be studied so that we know what will happen to planets like Jupiter and what will the Sun do to our solar system. The planet was like Jupiter and it has now evaporated to the size of Earth

Astronomers appear to have caught an exoplanet – a planet orbiting another star – in the middle of a cosmic vanishing act.

Its diameter is roughly 1.7 times that of Earth. Based on its size and mass, its density is similar to Earth's, indicating that it is a rocky Earth-like orb.

But it wasn't always this small. Scientists estimate that CoRoT-7b initially tipped the cosmic scales at 100 times more mass than Earth and orbited the star at a distance of about 2.3 million miles. New findings suggest its proximity to its sun gives it a molten-hot surface temperature that is causing the planet to slowly vaporize.

If the astronomers' calculations are correct, the planet could be the first of a new class of planets, which astronomers have dubbed "evaporated remnant cores."

Source: abcnews.go.com...


[edit on 13-1-2010 by sunny_2008ny]

Very interesting find!

To answer your question, yes. One day the Earth may be destroyed by the Sun. As the Sun's processes begin fusion of heavier elements it will no doubt expand, possible even out to the orbit of Mars. This will of course have effects on the outerplanets. Don't worry, though - we have several billion years before that happens.

Ok so it evaporated, turned off the law of gravity to allow tons of material to escape it's orbit, and then just disappeared?

Sorry, this doesn't make much sense at all.

Am I missing something here?

Where did the stuff that "evaporated" go?

How did it escape the gravity well of the planet?

These are questions I would like answered.

reply to post by muzzleflash

Ok so it evaporated, turned off the law of gravity to allow tons of material to escape it's orbit, and then just disappeared?

The star around which the planet is circling may have attracted the tons of debris and hence that is where the debris went.

The gravity of the star is stronger than the planet hence the planet is evaporating

[edit on 13-1-2010 by sunny_2008ny]

If this is true, than explain how the gravity did not suck in the whole planet?

I would expect if it had enough gravity to slowly suck in 9/10th's the planet's mass, it would follow that this small chunk left should have been sucked in as well now..

Or am I missing something here?

I am open to any information that will make sense of this.

reply to post by muzzleflash

If this is true, than explain how the gravity did not suck in the whole planet?

I am not sure, but I think eventually the entire planet will be sucked in, at cosmic scales I think this takes time, just like the Earth will eventually be sucked by the Sun

But I think you have a good point here

reply to post by sunny_2008ny


Good point. Another contributing factor would be solar winds. The Earth loses immense amounts of atmosphere annually because of this. Venus, which is even closer to the Sun, loses even more.

Also, the heat of being closer will literally boil away an atmosphere.

Gas is less dense than a solid. Planets (usually) rotate causing sheer.

A planet without a protective magnetic field would lose the less dense gases to solar wind, sheer, and gravity. Gravity would pull the particles towards the Sun.

I may not be totally correct, but I it doesn't seem all that strange to me that a solid body that produces its own gravity would be more immune to being pulled in towards a larger gravity source than less dense matter like gas. Particularly off a travelling, rotating object.

Maybe the planet was a gaseous giant like Jupiter with a solid core,(maybe Jupiter has a solid core too) and it is the lighter atmosphere that has been stripped. Of course I am being simplistic, but it is just a thought.

Originally posted by smurfy
Maybe the planet was a gaseous giant like Jupiter with a solid core,(maybe Jupiter has a solid core too) and it is the lighter atmosphere that has been stripped. Of course I am being simplistic, but it is just a thought.

Something that huge and massive would create intense amounts of pressure within it.

So I do not think a solid core is possible. It would have to be liquidized.

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid
Another contributing factor would be solar winds. The Earth loses immense amounts of atmosphere annually because of this. Venus, which is even closer to the Sun, loses even more.

Also, the heat of being closer will literally boil away an atmosphere.

Some questions.

1) If Earth supposedly loses atmosphere than where does it go? Wouldn't the Earth's gravity pull it back in (or the moon)?

And why isn't the atmosphere shrinking due to this? Hell by now we should have NO atmosphere at all. Science claims that our atmosphere CAME from space due to Earth's gravity sucking it in. (Not the other way around)

SO I don't buy your explanation at all.


2) How the hell do you boil a gas? This really is new to me.

I thought "boiling" was when a liquid underwent a chemical reaction that converted it's atoms into Gases.

Just some thoughts and questions.

Originally posted by muzzleflash
1) If Earth supposedly loses atmosphere than where does it go? Wouldn't the Earth's gravity pull it back in (or the moon)?

And why isn't the atmosphere shrinking due to this? Hell by now we should have NO atmosphere at all. Science claims that our atmosphere CAME from space due to Earth's gravity sucking it in. (Not the other way around)

SO I don't buy your explanation at all.

The Earth's thick atmosphere probably came from the Earth itself, and some of that material came from comets -- but it most likely was NOT "sucked in from space", at least not in the way most people would interpret that comment.

Most of the gasses in the atmosphere game from outgassing of the planet's rocky materials, from volcanic processes, from biological processes -- and, yes, from comets being sucked in. I suppose someone could argue that the material from Earth originally came from space, but that's not what you are saying.

That would be like saying that you were "sucked in from space", only because all of the things that make "you" originally came from space. That may be true, but misleading.

By the way, atmosphere is in fact lost to space, but new atmosphere is also being created by Earthly processes.
Earth's Atmosphere is Leaking into Space

No linky, but could it be that same planet that Steve Quayle talks about that has been observed from
antartica to travel fast towards us and then STOP dead on its heels?????

It could have backed up for some reason... wth the reason or how i dont know.

Originally posted by dgtempe
No linky, but could it be that same planet that Steve Quayle talks about that has been observed from
antartica to travel fast towards us and then STOP dead on its heels?????

It could have backed up for some reason... wth the reason or how i dont know.

The planet in question (COROT-7b) is about 500 light years away.

There is no such thing as a celestial body that can only be seen from the South Pole. If it's in space, and can be seen from the South pole, then it could also be seen by the entire Southern Hemisphere.

Take the North Star (Polaris) for example. It is almost directly above the North Pole, but it can be seen from the whole Northern Hemisphere (and even some of the Southern Hemisphere).

Puts new meaning to the growing earth. They say the earth is growing in size and thats why the plates move as the earth expans. Makes you wonder if they were right.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


I stand corrected. Now lets tell Steve

Originally posted by dgtempe
reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

 

I stand corrected. Now lets tell Steve

I don't think it would make a difference. Steve Quayle (at least outwardly) does not seem like the type of person who would change his views, even when presented with good evidence -- i.e., his pre-conceived notions don't seemed to be altered by something as silly as "facts".

[edit on 1/14/2010 by Soylent Green Is People]

reply to post by muzzleflash


why liquidized (liquified)? wouldn't it make sense for elements in liquid form to solidify under intense pressure? take carbon for example, it exists as a gas and i believe it has a liquid form and when carbon atoms are exposed to high pressure they bond and crystallize then turn into diamonds. so pressure + heat can cause some elements to become solids. and here's what some sources have to say about gas giants.

The four giant planets are comprised mostly of an outer layer of molecular hydrogen and helium and a much thicker layer of metallic hydrogen. However, each may have a small solid core as large as three to 20 Earth masses at their center.

Jovians

Like Jupiter and Saturn, Neptune is one of the 'gas giant' planets, composed of a deep atmosphere around a liquid surface and sometimes a solid core.

... Neptune's core contains more rock and metal than the cores of other gas giant planets.

Neptune

Jupiter illustrates why the term "gas giant" (coined by the science fiction writer James Blish) is somewhat of a misnomer. Apart from having a sizeable solid core, Jupiter also has much of its hydrogen in either liquid or, at greater depths, solid, quasi-metallic form.

Gas Giant

granted, this information is based only on what we know of our solar system and is subject to revision at some future date when we make more discoveries about these planets.

and to the poster who mentioned something about the growing earth. please kindly take your agenda with you and create or post on an existing thread that deals with that hypothesis. let's try to stick with what we're discussing here.