Links:
Wired
NASA Statistics

The first analysis of the space telescope Kepler’s findings have been released. I would say that the mysteriously hot planets were cool, but that might seem a bit misleading

Any thoughts?

Benzyne, I just checked the statistics.  You may have been reading degrees inclination as temperature.  If you check the next couple of columns, you’ll see that all the planets are in the 5,000 to 7,000 degrees Kelvin range, and that’s hot enough to liquify or convert to gas most of the elements and natural materials.

Degrees incliniation is how far off of “vertical” the axis of the planet is as it revolves around its star.

Hope that helps.

Occam

Holy cow!  Orbiting from 2.20 - 4.89 days (Earth days I assume),
and a radius from 0.0356-0.0622 times the Earth’s distance from
the Sun!  Those are tight orbits!

<sillyness>
Cool… planets from 1500-1868 °K, stars from 4780-6350 °K,
data is so informative, it is so cool to explore and discover,
armchair discovery!
</sillyness>

Occam - 05 January 2010 02:20 PM

Benzyne, I just checked the statistics.  You may have been reading degrees inclination as temperature.  If you check the next couple of columns, you’ll see that all the planets are in the 5,000 to 7,000 degrees Kelvin range, and that’s hot enough to liquify or convert to gas most of the elements and natural materials.

Degrees incliniation is how far off of “vertical” the axis of the planet is as it revolves around its star.

Hope that helps.

Occam

Occam, perhaps he meant “cool” as in “really neat.”  You old fud! 

Hey Icy, let’s not be calling someone an old fud when someone self-reported her own attention and memory failures. 

But, yeah you’re probably right.  I sure wish those youngsters learned how to speak proper English and used rational phrases like 23-skidoo. 

Occam

I knew I’d get a chuckle out of you.  You’re fun to pick on, because you also pick on yourself.

And in my defense, it was a brand new door and I was not aware that it locked from the outside. The condo board picked the design and ordered it. 

Yes, that was a joke, hence the smilie. I’m perfectly aware of the temperature.

The styrofoam planet is awesome. Half the mass and 1.5 times the diameter of Jupiter.