Hubble spots a hottie

Alright, I picked this one hoping to be impartial, I mean we love science in all its crude, geeky, awesomest form. So yeah, let's get to the details already! Hubble, the space telescope, sweeps around the earth once every 97 minutes, yeah that's right, 97 freaking minutes! While you're digesting that fact, there's more to chew on, Hubble has recently confirmed the presence of a hot hot cometary planet orbiting very close to its star, and they call it HD 209458B. Hang on, there's more.. It appears that, due to its oh-so-close to the star orbital, this giant gas hottie's roasted atmosphere is escaping into space. Hubble's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) suggests the presence of a comet like tail formation behind the planet, by the sweeping of the planet's cast-off surface material by really powerful stellar winds. The planet, located 153 light-years from Earth, weighs slightly less than Jupiter but orbits 100 times closer to its star than the Jovian giant. The roasted planet zips around its star in a short 3.5 days. In contrast, our solar system's fastest planet, Mercury, orbits the Sun in 88 days, says NASA. I know! WOAH indeed! There's more to this, the formation of this comet like tail has only been hypothesized before. This is the first observational proof of existence of one. Way to go, Hubble! Despite all the roasting by its parent star, this extreme planet won't be destroyed anytime soon. 'It will take about a trillion years for the planet to evaporate' says astronomer Jeffrey Linsky of the University of Colorado in Boulder. Sigh, why am I not an astrophysicist again?! Oh yeah, I remember sucking up at physics. But biology is just as cool, whats with the new human longevity and all that.. yeah that's a hint! So, until there's more, which there will be, Peace love science and rock 'n' roll.

About Us:

Jaya and Vaisha:
The dynamic duo... Ha ha... Just two geeks who love Science and are trying to share its wonders with the rest of you...

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (so it seems now) we met in the distant planet of SASTRA, quite unique in its way... But that is the subject for a whole new blog... For now, sit back and enjoy our take on Science....