back to article Mega-star HD 10180 could have more planets than the Sun

Headline-hogging HD10180, the Sun-like star that fired the imaginations of alien-lovers everywhere back in 2010, may be the biggest planetary system ever detected. Artist's impression of the planetary system around HD10180 Artist's impression of the planetary system around HD10180. Credit: ESO/L Calçada A new study is …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    STOP WASTING MONEY

    WE HAVE PLENTY OF PROBLEMS HERE ON EARTH LIKE CIVIL RIGHTS AND ENDING THE VIETNAM WAR

    1. Ragarath

      Re: STOP WASTING MONEY

      And how may I ask will it help if we stop doing things in other areas?

      None what-so-ever, the money will still sit there but we will know less about other subjects.

    2. Audrey S. Thackeray
      Paris Hilton

      Re: STOP WASTING MONEY

      I'D LOVE TO GO TO SPACE BECAUSE ZAK SAID YOU TOTALLY LOSE ALL YOUR WEIGHT AND LIKE NOTHING CAN SAG BUT I'M NOT GOING UNTIL THEY SORT OUT THE FLOATING DOUCHE-WATER BALLS. I MEAN, GROSS!!

      1. Spoonsinger

        Re:"I'D LOVE TO GO TO SPACE BECAUSE ZAK SAID".....

        Wiggle your wings FGSK, WIGGLE THEM!!!!!!

    3. Some Beggar
      Trollface

      Re: STOP WASTING MONEY

      To the 8 downvoters on this post.

      We have a special offer on our patented Troll Detectors. 20% of the RRP and free delivery to UK Mainland. Don't miss it.

    4. oddie
      Trollface

      Re: STOP WASTING MONEY

      I AM 12 AND WHAT IS THIS!?

    5. Jim Carter

      Re: STOP WASTING MONEY

      LOUD NOISES!!

    6. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Joke

      Re: STOP WASTING MONEY

      I think the "ending the vietnam war" line is a bit of a give away he's not serious.

      1. Some Beggar
        Facepalm

        Re: STOP WASTING MONEY

        YOU DON'T KNOW, MAN! YOU WEREN'T THERE!

  2. Craig Vaughton
    Devil

    Bode's Law

    Assuming this to be accurate, is the end result similar to that of the Babel fish? "and god disappeared in a puff of logic"

    1. Steve Knox
      Boffin

      Re: Bode's Law

      Nope.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Bode's Law

      If you read the comments on this article here. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9192886/Religious-education-downgraded-says-Rowan-Williams.html#disqus_thread, I think you must conclude that God has already left the building.

      1. E 2

        Re: Bode's Law

        "You're in Russia, and a million works of art

        Are whisked out to the woods

        So when the Nazis find the whole place dark

        They think God has left the museum for good..."

        The 'Hip

    3. Simon Westerby 1
      Happy

      Re: Bode's Law

      Once Bode's Law has been proven to be true I for one look forward to welcoming our Bodacious new overlords....

      1. Mike Flugennock
        Paris Hilton

        Re: Bode's Law

        "Once Bode's Law has been proven to be true I for one look forward to welcoming our Bodacious new overlords...."

        Shit, yeah, man. He really could draw 'em ripe and healthy, couldn't he? Wowza.

        (Paris, because she wishes she was built like a woman in a Vaughn Bodé cartoon.)

  3. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Boffin

    Bode's law is really the result of gravity and time

    Bode's law was quite mysterious, until people realised that the curious sequence of orbital radii of planets meant an equally curious sequence of orbital periods (see Kepler's second law). Effectively, a sequence of orbits obeying Bode's law have simple resonances between the orbits. This increases stability. Over time, we would expect planetary systems to stabilize into orbits which obey this law.

    1. VinceH
      Alien

      Re: Bode's law is really the result of gravity and time

      Way back in the mists of time <cue strange swirly effect> I used Bode's Law for the coursework in a maths GCSE I took (for fun - already had an o level). I aimed to prove it by applying it to Jupiter's moons. There were a few anomalies (just as in the solar system itself), but it broadly fit.

      (I think I then took the coursework in the direction of using Bode's Law to fill in some of the numbers in the Drake equation...)

      I ought to try searching for the original document. I must have it still, somewhere.

  4. Tony Barnes
    Meh

    "in the crispy-fried zone for humanity or similar-bodied aliens"

    Kinda makes massive assumptions regarding the ability of life to exist in what would be outwardly hostile environments to us. Even on earth places like hydrothermal vents would be a bitch for us, but many species thrive there.

    It does bother me that humanity can be so unimaginative when it comes to thinking outside of the box with our definitions of 'life', pretty lame really. That close to the sun you could come up with a solar powered life form that could generate enough energy to ambulate, think 'Little Shop of Horrors' ;)

    1. Helena Handcart
      Facepalm

      Re: "in the crispy-fried zone for humanity or similar-bodied aliens"

      *sigh* The clue's in the title, Tony.

      1. Hairy Spod

        Re: "in the crispy-fried zone for humanity or similar-bodied aliens"

        and also remember whilst thermal vents are pretty warm, they are surrounded by ocean load of cold water, I expect that oceans on those planets would boil away in next no time...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "in the crispy-fried zone for humanity or similar-bodied aliens"

      "It does bother me that humanity can be so unimaginative when it comes to thinking outside of the box with our definitions of 'life', pretty lame really"

      Except he said "... for humanity or similar-bodied aliens" rather than "... for life"

      'similar-bodied' referring to our constitution, rather than simply our having legs.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Joke

        Re: "in the crispy-fried zone for humanity or similar-bodied aliens"

        "'similar-bodied' referring to our constitution"

        Oh, great - another strict constructionalist.

        1. Tony Barnes
          Facepalm

          Re: "in the crispy-fried zone for humanity or similar-bodied aliens"

          So 'similar bodied' means what then? I took it to mean has a body, stands up. Nothing about either of those criteria that would by definition make things flammable...

          To imply that in addition to having a similar outward appearance, they also have the same 'running gear' as life from earth is kinda daft, and was the point I was making.

          Oh well...

  5. Christoph
    Joke

    "If Bode's Law applies across the universe, as it does at our solar system and this (relatively) nearby planetary system, the chances for life-bearing planets somewhere out there increase."

    So this news bodes well for it?

  6. kns2c
    Headmaster

    Must be a typo

    Surely they meant to name it HD 1080p

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Must be a typo

      Come on - you know that planet's interlaced. Sure, it looks good sitting still, but...

      I read it as being planet HD 1080, too. I really think they should have made an exception.

      1. Dan 10

        Re: Must be a typo

        Same here - there's some sort of irony that the details are so vague...

  7. David 45

    Trolls

    Can nothing be done about the sudden influx of trolls like Big Dumb Guy 555? The name is very appropriate. I thought comments were supposed to be moderated and his idiotic rants have no place here.

    1. BristolBachelor Gold badge
      Joke

      Re: Trolls

      "Can nothing be done about the sudden influx of trolls like Big Dumb Guy 555?"

      It depends. In one of the user forums, there was talk of HTML5 standard browsers possibly having a feature where we can give electric shocks to posters of stupid comments (Thankfully for me, I don't have HTML5 compatible browsers :)

      By the way, strange posts are nothing new. AManFromMars has been entertaining us since 2007 (although it's been quiet since he went back to Mars)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Trolls

      Big Dumb Guy 555 is normally a mild irrititant, but I upvoted that post, coz the Vietnam line made me smile. Methinks BDG555 is actually a faux-troll, but hasn't quite refined his art [until now!]

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Meanwhile, the search the Intelligent life on Earth Continues...

    Though the hopes of successfully finding anything that can hold an intelligent conversation are fading fast...

    After the finding that the North American Continent is infested with the Republican Dung Flinging Beetle, which is on the verge of invading the Erasion and African Continents with the expectant annihilation of the less aggressive indigenousness sand and mud kicking beetles.

  9. Alan Brown Silver badge

    About that troll detector....

    Will it make trip-trap sounds as it crosses over my bridge and does it keep the front lawn neatly mown too?

    1. Allan George Dyer
      Coat

      Re: About that troll detector....

      I think that is the troll eradicator upgrade.

      No, don't laugh at this joke, the next one is MUCH funnier...

  10. Supplicant
    Alien

    Ground Control to Colonel Sanders.

    I, for one, welcome our crispy-fried alien overlords.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Silicon based life?

    Seem to recall the discussions about silicon based life with a DNA analog based on a double helix with heavy metals such as thallium, cadmium, lead and mercury acting as the "bases" and complex cuprates as the "sugars".

    Just because cadmium is highly toxic to Earthly life forms doesen't mean that something with completely different biochemistry with a lower survivability limit of +240 Celsius might not derive energy from converting copper into its oxides or carbides with ambient solar energy.

    That said, my back of the extremely black & charred envelope calculations suggest that about the most complex life form would be something like a fungus i.e. multicellular but living in a colony.

    AC/DC 6EQUJ5

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