Smallest extrasolar planet discovered [news item]

[nimbus]

Hmm... I don't know, offhand. We only know of so many extrasolar planets, so there's probably a concise list out there with comparative data.

how sick would that be if a planet had shorter years than days

 

[75th]

how sick would that be if a planet had shorter years than days

Shit my mind just blew.

Is that even possible?

 

[samoth]

samoth are there any planets that complete revolutions faster than rotations?

Gliese 876 d has an orbital revolution of 1.9 days, but apparently they can't calculate rotations very easily for many far-away planets. They can pretty easily derive orbital properties from gravitational effects in multi-body systems, but I have no idea how they'd get rotational speed calculated from here.

 

[samoth]

how sick would that be if a planet had shorter years than days

Nathan's the astrophysicist here. He'd be the one who could best answer these questions.

 

[mountain muscle]

Did they find your lost arrows Sammie?

 

[nimbus]

Nathan's the astrophysicist here. He'd be the one who could best answer these questions.

Isn't it just one question? I thought if a planet completes a revolution faster than a rotation, a year is up before a day

 

[samoth]

Isn't it just one question? I thought if a planet completes a revolution faster than a rotation, a year is up before a day

Sure. Why not? There's nothing prohibiting day > year.

 

[javaguru]

Awesome....from what I've read they've only found roughly Jupiter sized planets thus far. It's interesting that until relatively recently astronomers looking for planets outside of our solar system were considered "on the edge."