At group meeting, Roberto Sanchis-Ojeda (Berkeley) and Kat Deck (Caltech) were around to argue exoplanets. We had Sanchis-Ojeda tell us about his ultra-short-period (USP) planet work. He showed us his evidence for a disrupting (or something) USP planet; to me it looks like evidence for a technological civilization making power from a star! But, for some reason, no-one else thought so! We discussed tidal mechanisms and stripping mechanisms, but we concluded that there is no real reason to think of the USPs as being related to hot jupiters or any other kind of planet in any mechanistic way.
You've got me interested! Is this USP disrupting planet / ET thing public?
ReplyDeletehttp://arxiv.org/abs/1312.2054 Check the phase-folded light curves!
DeleteHA! I am literally writing up a SETI paper on this object RIGHT NOW, procrastinating between sections by reading and commenting on your blog!
ReplyDelete