Room to grow

It’s pretty amazing that we can now see extrasolar planets directly like the one shown above its star in this photo taken in 2008. Gives us hope for sure since we’re getting so crowded on this planet and need room for expansion. Only 500 light years away, this gigantic planet is still very young and therefore very hot. Give it time to cool and build up your strength since it’s estimated to be eight times more massive than Jupiter and will surely tax your ability to stand up. But by the time we’re ready to go there maybe we’ll have developed ways to get around by crawling. Or oozing. Of course if everybody is lying on his/her belly or back, we’ll take up more room than if we stand, but hey, on a planet that big there’s plenty of room.

Get a load of the catchy name for this planet’s star—1RXS J160929.1-210524! Astronomers sure could use a new naming scheme. May I suggest Ball-O-Fire or maybe Foton Faktory or Super Giganto Shine-o. As usual, click the photo to enlarge, and thanks to Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Credit: Gemini Observatory, D. Lafreniere, R. Jayawardhana, M. van Kerkwijk (Univ. Toronto)