Earth Science C block
Maria Louka
Current Event #2

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/giant-planet-around-dwarf-star-a-surprising-discovery-1.2641682

Recently a “gas giant” has been found rotating around a star. This gas giant is ten times bigger than Jupiter, which is the biggest planet in our solar system. We are naming it planet GU Psc b and it is 2,000 times farther way from its star than Earth is from the sun, although we are not sure yet if it truly is a planet or not. Its discovery has been announced this past week as an exoplanet. It was discovered by Marie-Eve Naud and her team at the University of Montreal. They conducted research through Canada, Hawaii, and Chile to learn more about GU Psc b and its discovery a while back. It is more distant that any planet ever discovered. The planet is still bound to its star using gravity though. Currently scientists are still trying to learn about GU Psc b and deciding whether or not it really is a planet. They have been doing research and they estimate that the planet completes its orbit around its star every 80,0000 years. The location of the star is in the constellation Pisces. The funny thing is that this star is very young and small (its mass resolves to around one third of the mass of the sun). Many think it may not be a planet because it is too big and you wouldn’t expect to see a big planet around a small star. Scientists are trying to determine if it is not a planet if it could be a star that was too small to become a real star. Something fascinating about GU Psc b is because its so far away from its star, when scientists were studying it they didn’t catch the star’s glare, which is something that doesn’t happen too often. Because of this we have learned more easily things about it such as its size, temperature (700 to 800 degrees Celsius), age (still quite young and cooling). Scientists detected water and methane in the atmosphere of GU Psc b saying that if Europa were closer, Europa would contain liquid water. Even though Europa isn’t close if we discover a moon near it with any form of water, we would have advanced so much!

This sheds new light on the formation of planets. If GU Psc b truly is a planet, then we will know that planets are able to form farther away from stars than ever thought. But scientists still have to determine if GU Psc b is really a planet, or just a failed star. This is important because as we continue to learn about new planets we learn more about our solar system and other life forms or other habitable areas. As said with Europa above, if Europa were near it, it would surely contain liquid water. If we find liquid water, we are one step closer to knowing that planets are habitable and sending more humans to outer space. The more knowledge we have the better. But we do know that it is not habitable because it is so big and gassy, but it is very important because one of its moons could be habitable. If we find more areas in our solar system that are habitable, then we can travel to new places and discover new things. There are still many things we have left to learn about the world. GU Psc b could open a gateway to more undiscovered things about the solar system.

I thought this article was very well written using language that any classic American who doesn’t study science of astronomy would understand. However, some of its points were a little unclear. I was confused by how the scientists still don’t know what Gu Psc b is but yet they know all this information about it. I believe as they are gaining more information, they will be able to tell whether GU Psc b is a failed star or a planet. I think generally it is hard to critique this article scientifically because a lot of it is based on theories or estimations. The scientists don’t truly know what GU Psc b is but its discovery is still a big deal and exciting and once determined what it is, could help us in the future. I think our scientists need to keep working to discover more about GU Psc b and hopefully they have discovered a new planet!

Chung, Emily. "Giant Planet around a Dawrf Star a Surpassing Discovery." CBC. 13 May 2014. Web. 19 May 2014. <http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/giant-planet-around-dwarf-star-a-surprising-discovery-1.2641682>.

Fazekas, Andrew. "Far-Flung Exoplanet Puzzles Astronomers." National Geographic. 14 May 2014. Web. 20 May 2014. <Far-Flung Exoplanet Puzzles Astronomers>.