Gone with the heat?"Feeling the heat of an extrasolar planet extrasolar planet also called exoplanet Planet that orbits a star other than the Sun. The existence of extrasolar planets, many light-years from Earth, was confirmed in 1992 with the detection of three bodies circling a pulsar. " (SN: 10/28/06, p. 285) made me wonder how long a gas planet is expected to survive when one of its faces is more than 1,000[degrees]C. The conventional model of our solar system solar system, the sun and the surrounding planets, natural satellites, dwarf planets, asteroids, meteoroids, and comets that are bound by its gravity. The sun is by far the most massive part of the solar system, containing almost 99.9% of the system's total mass. assumes that gas planets can form and survive only in a cold region of space. This implies that Upsilon Andromedae b Upsilon Andromedae b (occasionally referred to as Upsilon Andromedae Ab to distinguish it from the red dwarf star Upsilon Andromedae B) is an extrasolar planet orbiting the Sun-like star Upsilon Andromedae A every 4.62 days. Discovered in 1996 by Geoffrey Marcy and R. moved to its present position after it had formed and that it is now evaporating rapidly. DONALD SHERNOFF, WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. |
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