Pity our descendants, who are going to have to find a way to venture into the white-hot furnace of HD 189733b, a planet 63 light years away from Earth. Now that HD 189733b is the first planet outside our solar system that we know includes organic molecules, we'll need to brave the temperatures of the "Hot Jupiter," which range from 1200 to 1700 fahrenheit, so we can see what — if any — sort of life could survive there. Chances are it's just a dead world that just happens to contain methane, one of the building blocks of life. But we've been surprised before. Click through for a gallery of this giant super-hot planet (which needs a new name.)

10:30 AM on Fri Mar 21 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
1,113 views
7 comments

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Jeff-Minor at 11:11 AM on 03/21/08
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I tend to think that only planets that we can live on should get names (outside this stystem). Or just name the star a planet orbits and give the planet a letter designation. I like the name Cauldron, since it describes what it is. What star does this hot world orbit?
Grey_Area at 11:54 AM on 03/21/08
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We've pretty much taxed all the Greco-Roman mythological names and Saturn has a bunch of the characters from Shakespeare. There's even that one mini-planet that was going to be named for Sedna, the Inuit sea goddess. Now the Norse gods would be obvious but I was thinking of a more Modern Pantheon. Hmm...large, hot (sweaty even), dramatic, possibly full of life-inspiring stuff...
I dub this planet-- Brando.
Grey_Area at 02:11 PM on 03/21/08
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Whoa, sucked all the air outta this room, didn't I?
Sorry.
CargoCult at 02:23 PM on 03/21/08
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'Brando' is more of a name for a red giant - a bloated, faded star?
Jeff-Minor at 02:28 PM on 03/21/08
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Within the Margin of Error, CSSV Tornado Class: {short burst to Grey Area}

Grey Area, it's not an interesting enough question for what amounts to little more than a resource. The place is scorched ions all the way down to its liquid metal hydrogen core. One hell of a mg field, very pretty from hyperspace. The only useful matter in the system is further out. Enough for a smaller ship of your class. HEHEHE.

End Transmission. Code point :)
Grey_Area at 02:49 PM on 03/21/08
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@Jeff-Minor:
{stuttered tight burst to
xWithin the Margin of Error, CSSV Tornado Class
oGCU Grey Area}
transmission begins
10-4, good buddy & point well taken, lovely sunsets though. Well, guess it's time for this Mind to hit the long and dusty trail. The ego/mindstates of petty hominid war criminals don't ream themselves. tee-hee.
transmission ends
Jeff-Minor at 05:07 AM on 03/22/08
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Grey Area, I need to test out my new anti-M projectors, so I'm thinking I'll just blow the entire thing up. I'm in a mood today! If you want to flash over, I'll wait. It's not like anyone of importance is going to miss one more gas giant. And just think of the show they'll have on Earth in 63 years! They'll love it! If they survive long enough.