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Thursday August 27, 2009
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Look out below: astronomers have discovered that a giant, fiery exoplanet called WASP-18b appears locked in a death spiral with its star.
The planet is about 10 times the size of Jupiter and appears to be very close to its star, according to the Associated Press. WASP-18 is so large that it's triggering huge plasma tides on the star's surface, the report said--which in turn are distorting the planet's orbit. Even crazier: the planet orbits the star in less than one day.
Planet discovered Coel Hellier predicts in the article that within the next million years, the planet will spiral right into the star--which should be good for some spectacular fireworks. "It's causing its own destruction by creating these tides," Hellier said.
Like most exoplanets, astronomers discovered WASP-18 by monitoring variations in light from its star whenever the planet crossed in front of it. (Image credit: CARREAU/ESA/Nature)
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August 27, 2009 8:13 PM
WHOA. That's absolutely crazy - it's THAT close that the gravitational field of the planet causes waves on the surface of the STAR?!
I mean that's absolute madness!
August 31, 2009 5:48 AM
Yeah! the problem of planet is responsible to its destruction.............
September 2, 2009 6:50 AM
Mathematical Breakthrough
It is now mathematical proven that the decelerating force that affected the Pioneer probes and the accelerating force that had caused many Fly-by anomalies:
1.) Both affect the Earth (and the planets) as well, - and with full force.
2.) Automatically equalize each other (when affecting the planets).
3.) This explains the cause of the WASP-18b mystery and all the probes anomalies as well.
4.) Wasp will be stable, it will not approach the mother star, not at all.
More > www.science27.com/english/the_pioneer_anomaly.html
September 27, 2009 8:36 AM
UPDATE
The conclusion in my previous post was wrong.
It’s not enough only to consider the possible force that can be pass by, - based on the angel velocity as a result of a astronomic bodies rotation (centrifugal force) affecting the planet (WASP-18b).
It’s also necessary calculating the possible energy requirement and compare that to the (rotation) energy available due to the stars rotation..
This shows that even though if enough energy fast “could” be transmitted to Wasp-18b, it’s simply not available.
Wasp-18b will therefore approach the star, and will not only be affected by the tidal effect (expected 2.8 s. per year) but will probably also be effected by too weak rotation energy (+ 2 s per year) Total 4.8 s. per year.
However Wasp-18b should have been dismissed for several hundred million years ago. How could it “hide it self” from the tidal force so long time?
The answer seems to be “written in the stars”.
By comparing with other solar systems we can easy understand the logic. (The site is now updated and much better now) >
http://www.science27.com/english/SolarSystems.htm
Sorry for the confusion…