Thursday, August 03, 2006

Starless and Bible Black

As mentioned before, I'm into astronomical curiosities. And I just learned of a new one: a system consisting of two very large planet-like things orbiting each other in the dark far away from any sun. As the King Crimson song goes, "Starless and Bible Black", indeed!

These things are called planetary mass objects or "planemos". They've been known for some time as partners to stars, but this is the first time that a starless pair is found.
Planemos are objects similar to brown dwarfs, failed stars too small to sustain the nuclear reactions required for stellar ignition. But at only a few times more massive than Jupiter, they resemble planets more than stars.
[More blog entries about , ; .]

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Came to your intriguing site via GOB. I like really enjoy King Crimson but the phrase "starless and bible black" comes from the opening lines of Dylan Thomas's poem Under Milk Wood.

04 August, 2006 11:58  
Blogger Martin said...

Ah, I should have known, 70s prog was relentlessly pretentious. And Red is a wonderful album. But, alas, all I know about Thomas is drunk himself to death and rage against the tie-dyeing of the pants.

04 August, 2006 21:23  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah! "Starless" is my favourite tune!

04 August, 2006 23:10  
Blogger Martin said...

I've spent days with that little lead guitar phrase from "Starless" playing in my head...

04 August, 2006 23:39  

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