back to article Deep-fried planets discovery offers hope for Earth’s future

Earth may survive longer than we expect - scientists have stumbled across two deep-fried planets orbiting the glowing embers of a dying star. The two flame-grilled planets, dubbed KOI 55.01 and KOI 55.02, are slightly smaller than the Earth and have been spotted in a very tight orbit around a subdwarf B star - one that has …

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  1. Josco
    Thumb Up

    We will survive?

    I am pleased that you think the earth may survive. I plan to live forever, and so far so good.

    1. Tel Starr
      Alert

      Only One

      Unless your Ian McShane no one can survive plummeting thru the suns atmosphere like that.

      Lovejoy Lives!

      1. Eponymous Cowherd
        Headmaster

        His Ian McShane what?

        I have to ask.....

        1. Stoneshop
          Headmaster

          @Eponymous Cowherd

          His apostrophes look like having been stripped already, probably by The Sun's atmosphere.

          1. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
            Go

            Ian McShane?

            Ian McShane wouldn't survive that.... Chuck Norris maybe, but not Ian McShane.

  2. Ben 38
    Mushroom

    Earth survival?

    I'm not sure this finding gives much hope for Earth. From what I've heard these planets were once gas giants, with only their charred iron cores surviving the cremation. Any process that can strip a Jupiter down to a sub-terrestrial sized husk is not going to do wonders for the Earth's habitability!

    1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
      Happy

      So, some form of hat would seem to be indicated, then?

      GJC

      1. Graham Marsden
        Mushroom

        @Geoff Campbell

        And some Factor 10,000,000 suncream...!

        1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
          Pirate

          Good plan, Graham

          If we start now, we should be able to corner the market.

          GJC

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    These planets may have been the cores of gas giants.

  4. Tom Womack
    Boffin

    I suspect it's more hope for Jupiter

    They haven't got radial velocity data to get the masses, and the paper is in Nature and not open-access, but the more technical summaries suggest that the deep-fried planets are the iron cores of former gas giants.

    1. Richard Wharram

      Iron

      According to 2060 the core of Jupiter was a diamond. But more fun than iron I'd have thought.

  5. Stoneshop
    Coat

    In other news

    it appears that in anticipation of future events, Mars bars are being stockpiled all around Scotland

  6. Alain
    Trollface

    We know of a brown dwarf that possibly did that

    Since he's French, I wonder if he might be referring to Sarkozy?

  7. ~mico
    Coat

    Just the cores?

    So, if I want to survive, I better start digging now! Those 6000 km of crust and mantle ain't going to dig themselves, right?

    Now where's my digging suit?

  8. Dave 45
    Mushroom

    We're DOOOOMED a tell ya!

    We need a Private Fraser icon (Dad's Army) for topics like this dontcha think?

  9. Chris 244
    Coat

    5 Million Years!!!???

    WE'RE ALL GOING TO BURN TO A CRISP IN 5 MILLION YEARS?!?!?

    Oh, wait. Five billion years. Never mind, then.

  10. Mako

    So basically this is like...

    ...when you're barbecuing, and a couple of Teriyaki ribs fall through the grill and onto the coals? The remains of the ribs are still there, but they sure aren't any use to anyone.

  11. Bill B
    Pirate

    So what you are saying is ...

    the Silurians will survive?

    I for one (etc etc)

  12. DirkGently
    Mushroom

    "Astronomers expect the Earth’s sun to go through a similar process in about five billion years time."

    Just time for another bath! Pass me the sponge someone would you please?

  13. Snowball Solar System

    Been There Done That

    Oh, no not again!

    This is observational confirmation of an alternative model of the solar system that represents a paradigm shift second only to the Copernican Revolution of 1543. Snowball Solar System suggests that our solar system formed with a binary star whose components merged in a luminous red nova (LRN) at 4.567 Ga to form our solitary sun. And the red giant phase of the LRN engulfed the inner planets out to Jupiter, resulting in their present volatile depletion (planetary volatility trend) and their metallic-iron cores.

    If so, Earth and Venus may have originally formed as ice giants like Uranus and Neptune before their direct exposure to solar plasma.

    http://hillscloud.wordpress.com

  14. zhub

    So is it deep-fried or flame grilled?

    Picky planet-eaters want to know.

  15. Local Group
    Childcatcher

    If there is a massive emigration of cockroaches to Mars

    "Earth's fate is precarious. As a red giant, the Sun will have a maximum radius beyond the Earth's current orbit, 1 AU (1.5×1011 m), 250 times the present radius of the Sun.[94] However, by the time it is an asymptotic giant branch star, the Sun will have lost roughly 30% of its present mass due to a stellar wind, so the orbits of the planets will move outward. If it were only for this, Earth would probably be spared, but new research suggests that Earth will be swallowed by the Sun owing to tidal interactions.[94] Even if Earth should escape incineration in the Sun, still all its water will be boiled away and most of its atmosphere will escape into space." (Wikipedia)

    But no more large heating bills in the winter.

  16. Eddy Ito

    Tom Lehrer was right

    "We will all fry together when we fry. We'll be french fried potatoes by and by."

    That's chips or perhaps pommes frites for those of you on the other side of the pond.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Meh

      I hope they will at least be freedom fries.

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