New Planet Puzzles Astronomers

[serious biscuit]

Maybe it isn't a planet at all, but the galaxy's largest ball of candy floss. Spun by intersteller carnies and orbited by moon sized toffee apples.

That would be *puts on sunglasses* astronomically delicious. YEEAAAHHHHH!
But seriously, that is awesome and you are awesome. I'll see you on the moon! The tasty, taaasty moon! ^.^

It's a Pinkie Pie planet, it's got the color and the seemingly law breaking nature. I love the rate of planet discovery going on. If only we could go to them.

Pinkie Pie's planet, or Happyness Patrol planet?
I hope for the former. (or maybe it's Equestria! )

Spoiler

Hah! You got ninja'd, son! Also, pink planet of talking ponies? Sounds about right; let's just hope it's not some Twilight Zone switcheroo thing going on, where the ponies are actually carnivorous. o.o

However, I think since it's four times as large as Jupiter, it'll probably be just as toxic and uninhabitable...

I, too, applaud the rate of planetary discovery and hope that intergalactic travel is not too far off into the future, especially for those who don't want to cryonically preserve themselves just to be able to see it...Though, it's not a bad idea...

or maybe there isn't that much debris in that area because that one planet ate it all

I think I played a flash game similar to this once.

Universal Sandbox? Cause that's actually on Steam...

Think of it as... Pie in the sky?

Ba-dum tish! Also, if there's ever a situation where the entirety of humanity votes on which two people are going to become gods, I'd vote for you and C-Miss so you could make the most delicious galaxy ever.

....Don't ask me how that'd happen; I just like yummy ideas.

Nah I think it gravity crush or something, like an actual browser game.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

Maybe aliens do exist and they've developed an abnormally colored protective gas shield to ward off probing eyes and invaders.

... I'm obviously no astronomer, in case you couldn't tell.

 

[Infernai]

Pinkie Pie's planet, or Happyness Patrol planet?
I hope for the former. (or maybe it's Equestria! )

Spoiler

It's a Pinkie Pie planet, it's got the color and the seemingly law breaking nature. I love the rate of planet discovery going on. If only we could go to them.

I specifically think Equestria would look Blue given the sea's are blue and all that lovely jazz. Which means this is something else-

*eyes widen in horror*

It's a Trap! That planet's filled to the Brim with Slaanesh's cultists and Daemons!

-sorrowful breath-

In Fealty of the God Emperor, our undying lord, and by the grace of the Golden throne: I declare Exterminatus on the world of GJ 504b. I hereby sign the death warrant of an entire world and consign a billion souls to Oblivion. May Imperial Justice account in all balance. The Emperor Protects.

 

[NightmareWarden]

It is probably their for the same reason Uranus and Neptune are pretty large yet far away from our star: it was flung away from its star by a great force of gravity. Neptune and Uranus were once farther in the sun's orbit than Saturn. Jupiter and Saturn lined up in such a way that their combined gravity pulled Uranus and Neptune in their direction. The momentum kept them going for a while until they were slowed down and eventually stopped by lots and lots of rocks. They collected rocks along their trip which increased their mass and slowed them down.

Since this planet is bigger than Jupiter, it could've been pulled by a passing asteroid or something. It could've even been pulled by an even larger planet in that system which simply has not yet been spotted.
The more you know

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Space. Just when you think you've nailed something down, space throws a curve ball.

I love space news. ^.^

 

[Yuuki]

Planetary/star formation theory is a slightly different ballgame compared to grand-scale cosmological theories. So far our cosmological theories are fairly solid (besides the mysteries of Dark Matter, WIMPS and Higgs I mean) and discovery of weird planets doesn't really change any of that.
Overall planetary formation is really "behind" compared to other fields like star formation because planets are just so damn hard to observe and study. They are extremely tiny, hardly reflect light, don't generate their own light, etc.

For now whenever strange rogue planets are observed in places where they couldn't form, it's not difficult to imagine that they were once part of a system and were flung out of orbit (unstable orbit or something else disturbed their orbit). Happens all the time with asteroids/comets.

I was watching a documentary of how they found a gas giant 40% larger than Jupiter orbiting it's star at a closer distance than Sun to Mercury. Theoretically a huge gassy planet couldn't possibly form that close to the star, but they found out that it was once quite a large distance away until it's own orbit decayed and caused it to spiral into an extremely tight orbit. That planet only has around 10 million years to go before it completely vaporizes.

 

[Seraj33]

I believe we found the Vespids.

 

[KingBlackToof]

I don't believe all our theories about space. But this is what I really like about science:
'A theory is there because it's a rule which seems to apply, true or not. If something comes along and contradicts a current theory, they re-examine that theory.'

 

[bullet_sandw1ch]

Just a thought here, but being a gas giant, could it be possible that two really big gas giants collided into each other and formed into this planet? A similar theory (the difference being that the doomed planet swiped instead of colliding with Earth) is used surrounding the formation of Earth's moon.

im curious about this. what would happen if a planet collided directly with the Earth? would both just break apart?

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Men are from Mars, women are from Venus and gays are from GJ 504b.

 

[pearcinator]

I believe god did it.

Spoiler

Not really

well, if anyone did use this as evidence of god, then that would cement my theory.


That God, if he/she/it does exist, is the greatest troll in the universe.

"oh, think you know how planets are formed, here's a giant pink ball of gas in a place where it shouldn't be. Problem, Scientists?"

I lol'd

God is da man!

 

[Saltyk]

Makes you wonder how far off the mark the bulk of our theories about space really are.

Theories (in astrophysics) are as accurate as possible given all the observational data accumulated thus far. But they're flexible enough that when new data arrives, the theory is either changed or replaced. If GJ 504b doesn't fit the current models, then the current model will be updated. Happens regularly enough.

Yeah, but we know next to nothing about space, really. We're just throwing stuff around hoping to find something interesting. I'm curious about the color, though. I do wonder what sort of gas that planet has to make it that color.

Space. Just when you think you've nailed something down, space throws a curve ball.

I love space news. ^.^

Agreed. I was born in the wrong period of time. I'd rather have been born when we could actually travel in space.

[sub]I know how unrealistic that may be. Let me have my dreams, dammit.[/sub]

 

[Andy Shandy]

Ladies. Gentlemen. Aliens across the galaxy. I'm pretty sure we all know what has happened here. There is only one thing that can explain this mysterious phenomenon.

Spoiler: Behold!

[HEADING=1]DEM PAINT SKILLS![/HEADING]

No other explanation is necessary.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

The latest planet discovered by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, GJ 504b. But the most interesting part isn't its pink hue

But... I think the pink hue was the most interesting part...
I want to know why it is pink.

 

[piinyouri]

Just because there isn't enough material there to have made the planet doesn't mean there wasn't enough there at an earlier time.

 

[RicoADF]

Just a thought here, but being a gas giant, could it be possible that two really big gas giants collided into each other and formed into this planet? A similar theory (the difference being that the doomed planet swiped instead of colliding with Earth) is used surrounding the formation of Earth's moon.

im curious about this. what would happen if a planet collided directly with the Earth? would both just break apart?

Actually one of the current theories about the moon is that when the system was forming and the planets were still colliding (smaller ones collide to form larger planets) 2 planets collided and destroyed themselves, the remains then formed into the earth and moon. If it was to happen today it would depend on what sort of planet hit as to what would happen. If we're talking moon-pluto size it'd do alot of damage for certain but weather it would destroy the earth completely is hard to say, I'd guess probably it would destroy the planet but it's possible it would survive (anyone on Earth at the time would be having a rather bad day either way). A planet Mars-Earth size would defiantly destroy earth, although like the moon theory it's likely the remains would form into another planet (possibly being sucked up by the moon to be formed into it's own planet). If it was a gas giant like Jupiter or this pink thing then it'd just swallow earth like a small snack (seriously the great red spot on Jupiter is larger than our planet, we're tiny) and continue on it's way without noticing, the Moon would probably be the side dish.

And their the more generous options, neutron stars, black holes and other massive objects would all easily wipe this planet from existence and not even notice they had done it. Nice to know how small we really are....

Just because there isn't enough material there to have made the planet doesn't mean there wasn't enough there at an earlier time.

One of the reasons this is seen as unusual is that on the current theory when a system is born the lighter elements that make up gas giants are actually pushed to the outer parts of the system and then small planets gather them and eventually form into this massive balls of gas (and if they get big enough possibly into a star themselves). The theory says that only rock and other heavy elements can make up planets closer to the system for this reason (basically when the star ignites the shock wave/blast and solar winds pushes the lighter elements to the outer edges).

 

[RA92]

Ladies. Gentlemen. Aliens across the galaxy. I'm pretty sure we all know what has happened here. There is only one thing that can explain this mysterious phenomenon.

Spoiler: Behold!

[HEADING=1]DEM PAINT SKILLS![/HEADING]

No other explanation is necessary.

You are wonderful, you know that?

 

[ShadowKatt]

or maybe there isn't that much debris in that area because that one planet ate it all

That was my first thought, too. I mean, you have a planet, and it's massive. It seems like it's more massive than the debris around it could produce because, and here's your evidence, there is NO debris. I mean, it seems rather obvious.