The planet that (probably) never was
20 Apr '20 20:232 editshttps://phys.org/news/2020-04-astronomers-planet.html
"...what was heralded as one of the first exoplanets to ever be discovered with direct imaging likely never existed.
...Two University of Arizona astronomers conclude that NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was instead looking at an expanding cloud of very fine dust particles from two icy bodies that smashed into each other.
...These collisions are exceedingly rare
...the final nail in the coffin came when their data analysis of Hubble images taken in 2014 showed the object had vanished, to their disbelief...."
Oh well. You cannot get it right every time.
"...what was heralded as one of the first exoplanets to ever be discovered with direct imaging likely never existed.
...Two University of Arizona astronomers conclude that NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was instead looking at an expanding cloud of very fine dust particles from two icy bodies that smashed into each other.
...These collisions are exceedingly rare
...the final nail in the coffin came when their data analysis of Hubble images taken in 2014 showed the object had vanished, to their disbelief...."
Oh well. You cannot get it right every time.
