Blue Collar Scientist

This is a little disheartening. Universe Today has repeated erroneous reports that the smallest exoplanet so far has recently been found. Citing a Reuters story - not the best place to learn astronomy facts - the same UT contributor who posted the bizarre story about the Sumerian Aten asteroid “impact” reports:

The planet has a mass five times the size of Earth, which makes it the smallest extrasolar planet among the roughly 300 identified so far….

As far as I can determine, from a quick look through the Interactive Extra-solar Planets Catalog, the smallest exoplanets found to date orbit PSR B1257+12, a pulsar 980 light years away in the spring constellation Virgo, and they were discovered eighteen years ago. The planets orbiting that star have masses of 0.02, 3.9, and 4.3 Earth masses. The Reuters story talks about how Spanish astronomers found an exoplanet of 5 Earth masses. Which is two hundred fifty times bigger than the smallest pulsar planet!

It must be time for the funding cycle at CSIC Research Institute, where the PI announcing the discovery is based.

I don’t mean to pick on Universe Today. I read them religiously, and they rarely do this kind of stuff. This is an aberration, a statistical anomaly, an edge case. They usually get it right. Don’t hate them.

Tonight at seven I’ll be giving the astronomy program at the Eagle River Nature Center - out at the end of Eagle River Road in, ummm, Eagle River, of all places. I’ll be talking about exoplanets, and the prospects for life elsewhere in the universe. I mentioned this event earlier this week, but to tell you the truth, I wrote that posting a few months ago when I was first booked for the date, and before I had completed the program. It was scheduled to just appear at the right time thanks to the complexities of Wordpress’ future posting features.

So a more accurate description of the content can be found here, and some post-program coverage, including a link to a review, can be found here. But if you read this stuff, be aware, I’m not at CCSC tonight - I’m at the Eagle River Nature Center at 7:00 PM. See ya there!