John Dobson on Exoplanets:

[jabeoo1]

Having just watched the Astronomers Without Borders interview with John Dobson I was interested in a comment he made in response to the following question:

Question: What are your thoughts on all the extra solar planets being discovered now / planets around other stars?

He answers:

Well what they are discovering is what I would call stars and not planets. They call Jupiter a planet I call Jupiter a star.  Jupiter has 80% of the angular momentum of the solar system.  Now if it were a planet that would mean you took all the angular momentum of all these other things and dumped it on that one?  No you can't do that.  Jupiter is made of the same stuff as the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn came down (were formed ??) with the sun and were spinning and are still spinning.  The Sun was able to slow down because it shines in the ultra violet and knocks the electrons off the atoms nearby so its magnetic field had something to push around.  But Jupiter and Saturn can't radiate in the ultraviolet and knock the electrons off.  So there are no electrical particles around Jupiter and Saturn for them to transfer their magnetic field away.  

You see there is no way to gather up the angular momentum and put it in Jupiter. There is no way to do that if it were a planet.

He then finishes (with a smile and laugh by saying) all the observation evidence is on my side......all of it. 

Can be watched 11 min or so into the following linked clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnIf2XaqtsA

Interesting to know what others think about this.

[acey]

John Dobson did a lot for public astronomy and popularising simple alt-az mounts for big newtonians - but his views on astrophysics were entirely his own. He reckoned the Big Bang theory was wrong. Regarding Jupiter as a "star" fits with the maverick image.

Here's a little piece on the "angular momentum problem".

http://lifeng.lamost.org/courses/astrotoday/CHAISSON/AT315/HTML/AT31505.HTM