Astronomers catch first sighting of a planet's birth pangs Scientists have long postulated that planets are formed by accretion of matter in giant discs of matter around stars, and now an inventive researcher has found a way to spot a far-away world being born. "This is the first incontrovertible detection of a planet still in the process of forming – a so-called 'protoplanet'," said …
Ah, the distance figure originally being vastly out, explains why I was confused by this statement, "The protoplanet has been called "LkCa 15 b" and is located 450 light years away from Earth, meaning that by now it will probably be well formed" given that 450 years is absolutely nothing in the time scale of planet formation. I guess the part after the comma needs to be removed as well!
Up from me, but quibble with the bit where you connect it with creationism.
You may consider the difference between 'young Earth' and the more sane versions of creationism.
I do not have a quid on it either way, but the 'young Earth' people, whether Protestant Christian, Christian heretics, or Muslim, are clearly insane.
Most of the claims about extrasolar planets (apart from that they are vaguely observed) are so wild and poorly based, snouts in the trough indeed.
I checked the original paper and it is indeed 450 light years. It is quite easy to see further into the past. Even naked eye you can see the Andromeda Galaxy at 2.5 million light years, and Edwin Hubble could already study individual stars in it from earth. Furthest I have managed so far with my 8" scope is 3.5 billion light years (blazar OJ-287). Odd to think those photons exciting my retina (and brain) left the source 3/4 of the age of Earth ago.
Yes, the concept of looking into the past as you look into the night sky is truly wonderful. One way I often put it into perspective when pointing out objects in the sky to friends and family is to relate it to my ancestors.
So when I point out, for instance, Rigel in Orion (900 l.y. away) I ask, who was my direct-line ancestor living 900 years ago? My dad's dad's dad's...dad. Who was he? What did he do with his life? How did the events of the world at the time affect him? Because if someone is orbiting Rigel and looking back at the Earth with a humungous telescope, that's who they're seeing, not me!
I never fail to find that a sobering concept.
I've had this chat with my daughter, she was 7 or 8 at the time. We pointed a torch into the night sky and flashed the beam and then we talked about where the photons would be over time and the fact that if nothing impeded them they would basically go on forever.
The look of wonder on her face as she thought about the scale of the universe for the first time was just fantastic.
I feel for you mate, the light pollution from a huge city like Tokyo must be absolutely staggering. It's amazing you can even see 20 stars from such a place.
I live in Adelaide, Australia, which is a city of a million people, but compared to a megalopolis like Tokyo it would be little more than an outback village. Yet I've looked up at the night sky from Victoria Square in the centre of the city and the light pollution there kills off all but the brightest stars too.
But Adelaide is also fairly compact; about half an hour's drive from the city and you're out in the Barossa Valley or the Mt Lofty Ranges, where the light pollution disappears, and the night sky from there is absolutely incredible. Here in the Southern Hemisphere we can't see the Plough or Polaris, but here the centre of the galaxy rides high overhead and the dust lanes of the Milky Way obscuring Sag A stand out in razor-sharp detail to the naked eye. You can clearly see the central bulge and the sky-spanning spiral arms stretching off to either side. And the Magellanic Clouds, our satellite galaxies, are also amazing to see - the Tarantula Nebula is an easy naked-eye object despite being 110,000 light years off.
Perhaps you can find a spot where you can see the night sky. I haven't been to Japan myself, but I have spent many an intriguing hour hopping around it on Google Earth, and I noticed there's a hiking trail to the top of Mt Fuji. You can even follow it on Street View since someone's gone up to the summit with a backpack pano camera.
Perhaps on your next time off you might take a little trip up to the summit there and see what the night sky looks like. At that altitude much of the atmosphere would be below you, which would not only make the stars clearer but would also eliminate much of the scattering that causes light pollution to be such a problem in your part of the world.
(Interestingly, I noticed that Mt Fuji is on the same longitude as Adelaide. My house is only 15 km west of the longitude line that runs through Mt Fuji, albeit thousands of kilometres south of it!)
I still remember when I was a young undergraduate that the whole issue of 'exoplanets' was based on the logical premise that ours was unlikely to be the only star in the galaxy with planets orbiting round it.
In the intervening years we have spotted 'hot massive Jupiters', 'hot Jupiters' and gone down the size scale to small-ish rocky worlds (although in danger of getting a severe roasting from their unstable little suns). We now have sufficient data to generate statistical models of the likely prevalence of habitable worlds throughout the galaxy - - - and only one man-made object has (arguably) yet left the solar system.
Not bad progress from 'banging the rocks together, guys'.
Sure, to me, too, the techniques to observe exoplanets are almost a miracle, something I never expected to see in my life. OTOH, they are not direct observation.
I refute 'now have sufficient data to generate statistical models of the likely prevalence of habitable worlds throughout the galaxy', much evidence for violently inhospitable worlds, no statistical evidence for anything else, outside our own system, where Mars and the Moon are possibly livable underground, with the aid of advanced tech, Venus is hell, but looks nice on a clear night.
This is cool because so often we see these things by light that's taken millions of years to get here and the cosmic event is actually over by the time we see it.
This light is only 450 years old so this process wil still be going on.
Oh for an FTL spaceship, park up and watch.
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