Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/07/22/first-photo-of-multiple-giant.html
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Cool. When can we go?
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14 Jupiter masses? Is that thing a planet, or a brown dwarf?
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“The outer planet is six times more massive than Jupiter while the outer planet is 14 times heavier.”
But what about the outer planet?
“Hey, ESO, how large is your telescope?”
“VERY large!”
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What’s the stellar classification?
Our sun is a G V star. I’m wondering what they mean by “a star like our sun”
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It’s a K-type. Smaller, cooler than ☉. The larger of the 2 “planets”, 14 Jupiter masses, orbits 162 AU from the parent.
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Just read through the NASA article, and it appears the star is only 17 million years old. Practically embryonic.
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Systems like this are why (as soon as it gets possible to get back on track after Covid) the Magdalena Ridge Optical Interferometer (Telescope) will be looking at young planetary systems at much higher resolution than the one shown (which is also false color from an interferometric telescope.)
BTW: it’s now been an even century since Albert A. Michelson led the team that produced the first interferometric telescope and used it to measure the size of Antares: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1921CMWCI.203....1M
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