First Pic Of Strange Planet...

AUSTIN, Texas — "An extrasolar planet about one-fourth the heft of Jupiter might have formed from the collision and merger of two planets, astronomers announced Wednesday.

Known as 2M1207B, the object orbits a brown-dwarf star called 2M1207A located 170 light-years from Earth and seen in the direction of the constellation Centaurus.

Astronomers have long puzzled over the mysterious object, which seems to fall outside the spectrum of physical possibility.

Its temperature, age and brightness don't match up with what astrophysical theory would predict.

"This is a strange enough object that it needs a strange explanation," said Eric Mamajek of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Mamajek presented the research here at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

Researchers have debated since 2004 what exactly the object is, however — whether it's a planet or perhaps a brown dwarf, which is a failed star and not a planet.

Past estimates put the object's mass at about five times that of Jupiter. However, the new study, if accurate, suggests the object weighs less than Jupiter.

If the new model is correct, it would mean 2M1207B formed in a similar fashion to a planet. It would also means that a 2004 picture of the object would go down in history as the first photo of a planet outside our solar system.

Feverish

This titanic-collision theory would explain why 2M1207B is a feverish 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit (1,315 degrees Celsius) even though it's had possibly 8 million years or so since formation to cool off.

It should have cooled to 1,300 degrees F (704 degrees C) by now.

A smashup between a Saturn-sized gas giant and a planet about three times the size of Earth could explain the extra heat.

From nudges to colossal crashes, such encounters are common.

"Most, if not all, planets in our solar system were hit early in their history," Mamajek said.

Perhaps most notably, a collision created Earth's moon. And another knocked Uranus on its side."

Eventually they'll discover the first earth-like planet, and it'll take something like that to rekindle the publics love affair with outer space. For now we must remain content with inhospitable gas giants, but the day another earth is found, a warm, wet and cozy place so unlike the gas bags where only creatures like Clinton's or Obama's could thrive, that day will be a marvelous one for the only known sentient race in the universe.