Enormous Planet Discovered.

[Graybeard]

Enormous alien planet discovered in most distant orbit ever seen

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/enormous-alien-planet-discovered-most-distant-orbit-ever-seen-2D11703497

An enormous alien planet — one that is 11 times more massive than Jupiter — was discovered in the most distant orbit yet found around a single parent star.

The new-found exoplanet, dubbed HD 106906 b, dwarfs any planetary body in the solar system, and circles its star at a distance that is 650 times the average distance between the Earth and the sun. The existence of such a massive and distantly orbiting planet raises new questions about how these bizarre worlds are formed, the researchers said.
[...]
The planet HD 106906 b is only 13 million years old, and is still glowing from the residual heat from its formation," the researchers said. By comparison, Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago, which makes it roughly 350 times older than the new-found exoplanet.

I apologise to fundamentalists: They should read, "The planet is only 1 day old... By comparison, Earth formed 6,017 years ago, which makes it roughly 2,196,205 times older than the new-found exoplanet."

[Nam]

Yeah, I read that. Was going to post it but the website I was at wouldn't let me copy it. Anyway, totally cool.

-Nam

[Shaffy]

Really cool!
-Shaffy

[The Gawd]

I dont know yall, part of me would rather not hear about these new found planets and stuff since I feel I'll never get to know anything about them. I mean we cant even get photos inside the gas giants of our solar system. Space fills me with so much wonder, yet so much despair at what I'll never know. 

[Nam]

I dont know yall, part of me would rather not hear about these new found planets and stuff since I feel I'll never get to know anything about them. I mean we cant even get photos inside the gas giants of our solar system. Space fills me with so much wonder, yet so much despair at what I'll never know. 

Buck up, man. Live in the life you're in, fuck everything else[1].

-Nam

1.	but not literally unless you want, too.

[The Gawd]

I dont know yall, part of me would rather not hear about these new found planets and stuff since I feel I'll never get to know anything about them. I mean we cant even get photos inside the gas giants of our solar system. Space fills me with so much wonder, yet so much despair at what I'll never know. 

Buck up, man. Live in the life you're in, fuck everything else[1].

-Nam

1.	but not literally unless you want, too.

Nah I think I'm going to freeze myself when I die (or maybe before that) so that when we discover how to not die I'll be reanimated and hopefully by then we're inside Jupiter. Then I can be happy, and die.

[Nam]

Nah I think I'm going to freeze myself when I die (or maybe before that) so that when we discover how to not die I'll be reanimated and hopefully by then we're inside Jupiter. Then I can be happy, and die.

I think Uranus might be a smoother fit.



-Nam

[ParkingPlaces]

I think Uranus might be a smoother fit.



-Nam

The breadth of your expertise constantly amazes me! 

Hey Gawd, take a deep breathe and be happy with what we've got. When was a kid we weren't even sure what galaxies were. Now we're looking for and finding planets around other suns, and starting to analyze their atmospheres. I don't mind it when we use dissatisfaction to drive us to learn more. But don't use it to regret living in the wrong time period or something. Enjoy this stuff. It is incredible.

There will be people a thousand years form now lamenting that they can't find cheap flying icebergs in Jupiter's atmosphere to build on any more. Every generation has its problems. Be happy that it isn't 1600, when the biggest thing we could complain about would be that they burned Giordano Bruno at the stake yesterday for daring to state that earth wasn't the center of the universe.

[wright]

Nah I think I'm going to freeze myself when I die (or maybe before that) so that when we discover how to not die I'll be reanimated and hopefully by then we're inside Jupiter. Then I can be happy, and die.

I wish you well on your journey. Sincerely .

Hey Gawd, take a deep breathe and be happy with what we've got. When was a kid we weren't even sure what galaxies were. Now we're looking for and finding planets around other suns, and starting to analyze their atmospheres. I don't mind it when we use dissatisfaction to drive us to learn more. But don't use it to regret living in the wrong time period or something. Enjoy this stuff. It is incredible.

There will be people a thousand years form now lamenting that they can't find cheap flying icebergs in Jupiter's atmosphere to build on any more. Every generation has its problems. Be happy that it isn't 1600, when the biggest thing we could complain about would be that they burned Giordano Bruno at the stake yesterday for daring to state that earth wasn't the center of the universe.

Good points. I've said it before: we're living in a scientific Renaissance. Virtually every field of inquiry is exploding with new discoveries and new theories scrambling to keep up with them. It's a great time to be just an interested layman, let alone a specialist in any of the sciences.

Gawd, your frustration is understandable, but take a moment to appreciate what we have compared to even fifty years ago. Our expectations have been raised exponentially by the unprecedented success of the last hundred years. I really hope we don't let that go to waste and surmount our coming resource bottleneck, because our accomplishments to date are surely just a hint of what we might do with another century of advance...