Exoplanet 2M0437b. Does the name ring a bell? Well, it should. It’s the infant star of 2M0437. Maybe we can just call it “junior”. It was discovered by Mauna Kea astronomers and it’s discovery has caused great joy. The gas planet (too many baked beans?) is 2.5 quadrillion miles away… which looks like this: 2,500,000,000,000,000. Eh, you like go?
While some couples can’t agree on which way to situate the toilet paper roll on the holder by their toilets, we’re darn sure about this new 2-5 million year old exoplanet. And how do we know it’s that old, give or take a few hundred thousand years? Apparently, it’s still radiating heat and light and well… just trust us. While I find space and astronomy fascinating, I must admit that finding a new “thing” way, way out there sometimes leaves me mystified. After all, Columbia magazine reports that there are approximately two hundred billion stars just in our galaxy alone. And there are an estimated one trillion exoplanets.
Yes, discovery is cool, but I’m not sure we should party like it’s 1999 now that we found one of the trillion exoplanets. As scientists have actually seen just a few dozen exoplanets so far, we’ve got plenty of discovery possibilities to go. And don’t suggest that this finding might’ve simply been a Big Island gnat on that telescope. That would be cynical and astro-deflating.
In our insatiable quest to find out if we are, in fact, not alone in this universe, scientists are often wonderfully humble in admitting that they simply don’t know much about a lot of the things they spy on way, way out there. According to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the lead astronomer on this study stated, “The process is very complex. We don’t understand most of it”. How refreshing. If only Congress would admit as much about most of the overstuffed bills which regularly befuddle them.
It’s really cool when brilliant orbit oglers find things that may or may not be meaningful, and so rare to hear highly-accomplished people regularly say, “beats me” when asked for details. While I’d prefer if more time was spent exploring ways to save this planet before it becomes an ex-planet (not to be confused with hazy exoplanets) or more money was spent exploring the barely- understood ocean blue, kudos to UH stargazers for finding a (semi-) brand spanking new baby planet.
Think about it…