Brown Dwarfs Close To Sun Harbor Hidden Planet
Credit: NASA / JPL / Gemini Observatory / AURA / NSF
After the discovery announcement, several teams of astronomers, including the one with Beletsky, used a variety of telescopes to characterize the neighbouring couple.
After two-months of observations and extensive data analysis, Beletsky’s team, led by Henri Boffin of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), found that both objects have a mass between 30 and 50 Jupiter masses. By comparison, the Sun has a mass of about 1,000 Jupiter masses.
“The two brown dwarfs are separated by about three times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Binary brown dwarf systems are gravitationally bound and orbit about each other. Because these two dwarfs have so little mass, they take about 20 years to complete one orbit,” explained Beletsky.
The team used the FORS2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope at Paranal to image the brown dwarf couple in the best possible conditions, every 5 or 6 days over the period April 14, to June 22, 2013. Because of the instrument enabled the observers to make very precise measurements, the scientists were already able to detect tiny displacements of the two objects in their orbit during only this the two-month period.
The astronomers were able to measure the positions of the two brown dwarfs with ten times better accuracy than before and thereby detect even small perturbations of their orbit.
“We have been able to measure the positions of these two objects with a precision of a few milli-arcseconds,” said Boffin. “That is like a person in Paris being able to measure the position of someone in New York with a precision of 10 centimetres.”
The measurements were so fine that the astronomers were able to see some very small deviations from the expected motion of the two brown dwarfs around each other. The fact that the deviations appear correlated is a strong indication that a companion perturbs the motion of one of the two brown dwarfs. This companion is most likely a planetary-mass object, which has an orbital period between two months and a year.
“Further observations are required to confirm the existence of a planet,” concludes Boffin. “But it may well turn out that the closest brown dwarf binary system to the Sun turns out to be a triple system!”
Contacts and sources:
Yuri Beletsky
Carnegie Institution
Source: http://www.ineffableisland.com/2013/12/brown-dwarfs-close-to-sun-harbor-hidden.html
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Whistler Blowers, Insiders
I think that’s politically incorrect, they are “little people.” Maybe that’s wrong too, they are just people. Enough of the dwarf stuff. Jeeess.
We can’t rely on any science stories. We will know something is coming when we see two Suns rising above the horizon. http://www.thewarningsecondcoming.com
why is the sun rising in the south and setting in the west 12-16-2013 ? In june of 2013 the sun was rising south east , now just south, was setting Northwest, now West,? Any answers out there ?
The earth’s axis tilts 23.4 degrees…
@Anonymous,
Very good question but no doubt that some scientific mind out there will give you a plausible answer,
BUT in years past the sun always rose from a easterly direction and set in a westerly direction ,
Andin the Summer it rose in the N/E direction and set in the N/W direction .
But you have noticeda big differance to the degrees in its placing to the earths axis ,Has what Mr Fred Rodgers is saying in the next comment ,
But to RISE in the SOUTH and set in the WEST must mean there has been a big change in the EARTHS axis OR ( STUPID NOTION ) The planets have moved their location ?.
I would go with the EARTHS AXIS, has a remedy for the change.
( IN OTHER WORDS THE POLES HAVE MOVED FROM THEIR ORIGINAL PLACINGS IN THE UNIVERSE OF TIME.)
Im in Missouri lake of the Ozarks and sure as sh** its coming up south east more south though, and going down west ..
The cited article says the brown dwarfs are 2.20 pc away as determined by parallex methd. That’s 6.6 light years. Not exactly a close encounter.
http://solar-center.stanford.edu/art/analemma.htmlanoymous
What you are referring to is called analemma. It’s represented by the odd figure eight that’s on older globes.
I knew an Anal Emma once.
Year after year the public hear’s the same ol same o , Nibiru , brown dwarf, earth in Danger,
lets see – 2008 , 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, No major sun flares , no large planetary objects,
no alien attack , hmmm, NO FACTS AT ALL !
Fesr and sensationalism does sell. Brown dwarf stars are very low luminosity objects and difficult to detect and observe. They might make up a significant part of the total missing mass of the universe that is assumed to be dark matter.
True, but if it were that close to us we would have known about it a long time ago, because you see brown dwarfs also have very high gravity & that would have screwed with the entire solar system & simply put it has NOT happened.