:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::

:: 7.12.2003 ::

:: Good planet hunting ::

Distant giant planet is oldest yet discovered
David Adam, science correspondent
Saturday July 12, 2003
The Guardian

The oldest and most distant planet yet discovered has been found 5,600 light years from Earth. It is 800 times bigger than our planet.

The Jupiter-like gas giant is believed to have been formed 13bn years ago, more than 8bn years before any other planet identified so far, and a mere 1bn years after the big bang.

The discovery, announced yesterday, could force astronomers to rethink theories of how planets are made. The early universe had little of the relatively heavy elements such as carbon, silicon and oxygen, which experts currently think are needed to kick-start planet creation.

"This offers tantalising evidence that planet formation processes are quite robust and efficient at making use of a small amount of heavier elements," said Professor Steinn Sigurdsson of Pennsylvania State University, who led the research. "This implies that planet formation happened very early in the universe."

ALSO...

The fact that planets can form in such an unlikely place means there could be a lot more of them out there than astronomers thought.

"This is tremendously encouraging that planets are probably abundant in globular star clusters," said Professor Harvey Richer of the University of British Columbia.

More planets means a greater chance of life; and the chance of forms of life that arose and died out billions of years before the Earth was even formed.

posted by me

:: 9:44:00 AM [+] ::
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