Re: Planets

John Lambshead wrote:
> 
> Adrea Lommen from UC reported at the American Astronomical Society
meeting in
> Washington recently that she had detected a Mars sized planet by its
> interference with radio waves as it orbited a pulsar	- the first
proof I
> believe of any small rocky planet outside the solar system. The 74 or
so
> planets found so far outside the solar system are I think gas giants
(need to
> be big to be detected - the pulsar is a lucky break). Many have
eccentric
> orbits that would prevent the formation of small rocky planets in the
> biozone. 47 Ursea Majoris has two large gas giants in circular orbits
outside
> the biozone but Gregory Laughlin (UC same conference) has calculated
that
> they are still too close in so the asteroid belt would be in the
biozone. Gas
> giants form the asteroid belt by preventing agglutination into a
planet.
> 
> I suppose if a gas giant had a circular orbit in the biozone then a
large
> moon might be able to support life.

Thanks. I am not familiar with the pulsar planets end of life; more
involved with the extrasolar planets around stars more or less like
our own studies these days. But you haven't really explained what you
mean by "Sol-like orbits" from your first post. Or, if you did, I didn't
understand the explanation you gave.