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wolram
Gold Member
Dearly Missed
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http://www.ucolick.org/general/pressrelease/99/99-11-29.html
The orbits of the new planets, like those of most of the extrasolar planets discovered so far, tend to be quite eccentric, tracing paths that are oval rather than circular. One of the planets, around a star called HD 222582, has the most wildly eccentric orbit yet known, carrying it from as close as 0.39 astronomical units (AU: the distance from Earth to the Sun) to as far as 2.31 AU from its parent star in the course of its 576-day orbit. “It is beginning to look like neatly stacked, circular orbits such as we see in our own solar system are relatively rare,” Vogt said.
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maybe this is bad news for seti, but how eccentric could
a planets orbit be and still support inteligent life?
The orbits of the new planets, like those of most of the extrasolar planets discovered so far, tend to be quite eccentric, tracing paths that are oval rather than circular. One of the planets, around a star called HD 222582, has the most wildly eccentric orbit yet known, carrying it from as close as 0.39 astronomical units (AU: the distance from Earth to the Sun) to as far as 2.31 AU from its parent star in the course of its 576-day orbit. “It is beginning to look like neatly stacked, circular orbits such as we see in our own solar system are relatively rare,” Vogt said.
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maybe this is bad news for seti, but how eccentric could
a planets orbit be and still support inteligent life?
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