Astronomers discover 'bizarre' giant planet
Pastor Dale Morgan
Astronomers discover 'bizarre' giant planet*
From correspondents in Washington
May 31, 2007 07:57am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
PROFESSIONAL and amateur astronomers announced today the discovery of a
"bizarre" planet outside the solar system that is more than 13 times the
mass of Jupiter.
The planet known as XO-3b was "an oddity" compared to the more than 200
extrasolar planets found so far, said Peter McCullough, an astronomer at
the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.
"It's the largest and most massive planet yet found in such a close
orbit, and given the proximity of the orbit to the star, we were
surprised to find that the orbit is not circular but significantly
elliptical,'' Mr McCullough said.
He and other researchers presented their findings today at a meeting of
the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu in the state of Hawaii.
"This planet is really quite bizarre,'' said Christopher Johns-Krull, an
astronomer from Rice University.
The size of XO-3b falls within the boundary between planets and "brown
dwarfs" - which are massive objects that are smaller than stars.
"There's still a lively debate among astronomers about how to classify
brown dwarfs,'' said Johns-Krull.
"Some people believe anything capable of fusing deuterium, which in
theory happens around 13 Jupiter masses, is a brown dwarf. Others say
it's not the mass that matters, but whether the body forms on its own or
as part of a planetary system,'' he said.
The planet was discovered by the XO Project, which couples amateur
astronomers with professional astronomers, using a telescope in Hawaii
on the Haleakala summit.
Amateur astronomers observe stars deemed possible planets, culling the
list over time. Professional astronomers then follow up the observations
with two larger telescopes in Texas to confirm the presence of a
transiting planet.