A ring around the sun
January 27, 2015 3:22 AM Subscribe
"The details that we see in the light curve are incredible. The eclipse lasted for several weeks, but you see rapid changes on time scales of tens of minutes as a result of fine structures in the rings," says Kenworthy. "The star is much too far away to observe the rings directly, but we could make a detailed model based on the rapid brightness variations in the star light passing through the ring system. If we could replace Saturn's rings with the rings around J1407b, they would be easily visible at night and be many times larger than the full moon."The first extrasolar ring system found turns out to be some 200 times larger than that of Saturn, easily eclipsing its parent star for days.
Absolutely fascinating. Thank you for sharing this.
posted by scottymac at 3:44 AM on January 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by scottymac at 3:44 AM on January 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
Oh, hey, it's Matt and Eric's work! I know those guys.
From Matt's facebook page: "Best comment from my big sis Eve: 'In the words of the great philosopher Beyoncé ... If you like it you should have put 30 rings on it.'"
posted by kyrademon at 4:40 AM on January 27, 2015 [7 favorites]
From Matt's facebook page: "Best comment from my big sis Eve: 'In the words of the great philosopher Beyoncé ... If you like it you should have put 30 rings on it.'"
posted by kyrademon at 4:40 AM on January 27, 2015 [7 favorites]
Well, ring-a-ding-ding!
The universe is a spectacular place. It's such a thrill to live in a time of discovery and wonder.
posted by Gelatin at 5:06 AM on January 27, 2015
The universe is a spectacular place. It's such a thrill to live in a time of discovery and wonder.
posted by Gelatin at 5:06 AM on January 27, 2015
Yet more proof that science fiction's major flaw is a lack of imagination.
The SuperWASP telescopes are pretty rad, robo-monitoring millions of stars simultaneously. I'm not sure what's got more chutzpah, the industrial scale of the project or the fact we're doing it through the atmosphere.
posted by Devonian at 5:09 AM on January 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
The SuperWASP telescopes are pretty rad, robo-monitoring millions of stars simultaneously. I'm not sure what's got more chutzpah, the industrial scale of the project or the fact we're doing it through the atmosphere.
posted by Devonian at 5:09 AM on January 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
Are the rings made of vinyl? If only we had a very large needle... a Space Needle... *eyes Seattle*
posted by oulipian at 5:25 AM on January 27, 2015 [16 favorites]
posted by oulipian at 5:25 AM on January 27, 2015 [16 favorites]
Geez, how come the other solar systems get all the cool stuff?
posted by TedW at 5:47 AM on January 27, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by TedW at 5:47 AM on January 27, 2015 [4 favorites]
Yet more proof that science fiction's major flaw is a lack of imagination.
What an absurd thing to say.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 6:05 AM on January 27, 2015 [5 favorites]
What an absurd thing to say.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 6:05 AM on January 27, 2015 [5 favorites]
I first saw this when the TIME article came across my Facebook feed this morning. The article is surprisingly even-handed for major news media science reporting, emphasizing that a gigantic ring system is the best explanation anyone has right now for the observed data, but it's far from proof.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 8:33 AM on January 27, 2015
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 8:33 AM on January 27, 2015
Preprint of the original paper, in case anyone is interested in digging in.
It's pretty tricky. If you look at Figure 5, their model fits the observed data points well, but there are a LOT of free parameters in the model, so there's no way it's a unique solution. (And yeah, there's a code repository on github, in case you want to try to fit your own rings, because of course there is...)
My un-informed assessment: plausible, but not a slam dunk. But in the bigger picture - we're talking about planets and rings in another solar system. "This eclipse and model implies that we are seeing a circumplanetary disk undergoing a dynamic transition to an exosatellite-sculpted ring structure and is one of the first seen outside our Solar system." Even 20 years ago, this would have been impossible. We're living through an age of discovery that puts Magellan and Columbus to shame.
posted by RedOrGreen at 9:00 AM on January 27, 2015 [3 favorites]
It's pretty tricky. If you look at Figure 5, their model fits the observed data points well, but there are a LOT of free parameters in the model, so there's no way it's a unique solution. (And yeah, there's a code repository on github, in case you want to try to fit your own rings, because of course there is...)
My un-informed assessment: plausible, but not a slam dunk. But in the bigger picture - we're talking about planets and rings in another solar system. "This eclipse and model implies that we are seeing a circumplanetary disk undergoing a dynamic transition to an exosatellite-sculpted ring structure and is one of the first seen outside our Solar system." Even 20 years ago, this would have been impossible. We're living through an age of discovery that puts Magellan and Columbus to shame.
posted by RedOrGreen at 9:00 AM on January 27, 2015 [3 favorites]
You hear that, Columbus? Shame on you!
Magellan, though: he's cool. He's got his own cloud, at least.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 9:28 AM on January 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
Magellan, though: he's cool. He's got his own cloud, at least.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 9:28 AM on January 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
When I first read the blurb I thought the star had the rings which would have been a whole different kind of cool.
posted by Mitheral at 9:57 AM on January 27, 2015
posted by Mitheral at 9:57 AM on January 27, 2015
(No diss of Columbus intended - and yeah, Magellan has both the Small and the Large cloud named after him.)
posted by RedOrGreen at 9:58 AM on January 27, 2015
posted by RedOrGreen at 9:58 AM on January 27, 2015
Stars with rings is how planets form, from condenscing dust clouds.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:01 AM on January 27, 2015
posted by MartinWisse at 11:01 AM on January 27, 2015
SteelyEyedMissileMan, I write bad science fiction and project a lot.
posted by Devonian at 11:14 AM on January 27, 2015
posted by Devonian at 11:14 AM on January 27, 2015
> Geez, how come the other solar systems get all the cool stuff?
We've got trees. I'm going to need to see some pretty amazing arrangement of rocks before I feel like we loose the comparison.
posted by benito.strauss at 11:57 AM on January 27, 2015 [3 favorites]
We've got trees. I'm going to need to see some pretty amazing arrangement of rocks before I feel like we loose the comparison.
posted by benito.strauss at 11:57 AM on January 27, 2015 [3 favorites]
SteelyEyedMissileMan, I write bad science fiction and project a lot.
Well, at least you're writing it. I keep meaning to, but somehow never get around to it. I do love bad science fiction, though, and I think even the "bad" stuff has a ton of imagination! Keep writing!
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 12:29 PM on January 27, 2015
Well, at least you're writing it. I keep meaning to, but somehow never get around to it. I do love bad science fiction, though, and I think even the "bad" stuff has a ton of imagination! Keep writing!
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 12:29 PM on January 27, 2015
Yet more proof that science fiction's major flaw is a lack of imagination.
I grok that you're being a bit facetious, but I've seen variations on this before; one of the contributors to one of Ellison's Dangerous Visions collections made a big deal out of how SF didn't predict that NASA would stop going to the moon after a few missions. Well, people who can successfully predict the future typically don't write SF, they play the stock market, it pays better. I'm quite grateful that something like this pops up once in a while to give the space SF writers a kick in the pants to elevate their game. Imagine how disappointing it would be if all the stuff like this had been predicted decades ago.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:27 PM on January 27, 2015
I grok that you're being a bit facetious, but I've seen variations on this before; one of the contributors to one of Ellison's Dangerous Visions collections made a big deal out of how SF didn't predict that NASA would stop going to the moon after a few missions. Well, people who can successfully predict the future typically don't write SF, they play the stock market, it pays better. I'm quite grateful that something like this pops up once in a while to give the space SF writers a kick in the pants to elevate their game. Imagine how disappointing it would be if all the stuff like this had been predicted decades ago.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:27 PM on January 27, 2015
Geez, how come the other solar systems get all the cool stuff?
Early birds get to see all the cool stuff. Our solar system probably had giant ring systems around Jupiter and Saturn before their moons formed, but that would have been billions of years ago.
* A little Google has just informed me that Saturn's current rings may have been formed more recently by the destruction of a moon, so Saturn may actually be giving us a special encore presentation of something that was much bigger and brighter a long time ago.
posted by Kevin Street at 2:30 PM on January 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Early birds get to see all the cool stuff. Our solar system probably had giant ring systems around Jupiter and Saturn before their moons formed, but that would have been billions of years ago.
* A little Google has just informed me that Saturn's current rings may have been formed more recently by the destruction of a moon, so Saturn may actually be giving us a special encore presentation of something that was much bigger and brighter a long time ago.
posted by Kevin Street at 2:30 PM on January 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Geez, how come the other solar systems get all the cool stuff?
You know what they say, the vacuum of space is always colder on the other side of the galaxy
posted by Hoopo at 11:42 AM on January 28, 2015
You know what they say, the vacuum of space is always colder on the other side of the galaxy
posted by Hoopo at 11:42 AM on January 28, 2015
Saturn may actually be giving us a special encore presentation of something that was much bigger and brighter a long time ago.
Encore! Encore!
posted by homunculus at 6:06 PM on January 28, 2015
Encore! Encore!
posted by homunculus at 6:06 PM on January 28, 2015
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posted by DigDoug at 3:39 AM on January 27, 2015 [9 favorites]