Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Scientists Discover Colu

This is a DC comics rendering of the planet Colu.



This is a Nasa photo of a recently discovered planet found directly outside our solar system.



Coincidence? I THINK NOT. Wave hello to Brainy, Legion fans!

If that's really Colu, then they've probably been secretly observing us for years.

The pink "exoplanet" is about the size of Jupiter, but is about four times the mass. The scientists believe it has a temperature of around 460 degrees Fahrenheit.

Besides its color, the planet is unusual because of its distance from its sun, GJ 504 or 59 Virginis — nearly nine times the distance Jupiter orbits the sun, or 43.5 astronomical units. The sheer distance makes astronomers start to question some of the theories they have around how planets form.

"This is among the hardest planets to explain in a traditional planet-formation framework," said Markus Janson, a Hubble postdoctoral fellow at Princeton and one of the researchers on the project. "Its discovery implies that we need to seriously consider alternative formation theories."

Infrared photos of the planet were taken by the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The approximately 160 million-year-old star system in which the exoplanet resides orbits around the star GJ 504, and is approximately 57 light-years from Earth.

Skywatchers can find GJ 504, and its pink cohort, in the constellation Virgo.

Amazing! And this supports my theory that these stories are all true....

57 light years from Earth? That's no time at all for a Coluan.

At it's size, gravity, etc. it is unlikely that this is Colu.

However....

Given the distance from the parent star and the size/gravity of the world shown in the picture, it is (questionably) feasible that Colu could be a separate planet or planet-sized moon in orbit around the gas giant but in such an wide orbit that it is in permanent position within the "Goldilocks zone" of this system.

just my two-cents worth.

I love the fact that scientific discoveries like this continue to happen on a daily basis, and, so often, the results are like, 'This doesn't fit our current models! We have to re-examine everything!'

I love that the scientific community (at least in some sectors) remains open to checking their assumptions when new discoveries don't mesh with accepted theories.

Great picture! I'm sadly addicted to NASA website and love reading how they are constantly finding things that they just have no flamin' clue about.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Don't spoil it for me!!

Conjie, we could always subscribe to the idea that the genius Coluans somehow manage to alter the planet's size, gravity etc. to make it more like Colu!

EXACTLY, IB.

We here on Earth, with our faulty science, can't possibly measure Colu correctly. It's totally Colu.

I am reminded of the old Coluan proverb:

"If it squawks like an elva beast and flaps like and elva beast, it is statistically favorably an elva beast."

Those crafty Coluans might also have built a fake planet to protect their real one from inferior races like us.

I'm not saying that the Coluans couldn't find a way to establish an orbital facility of sorts in orbit around this gas giant. But, as the size of this thing compared to Earth would be like comparing Manhattan Island to a field pea and as the gravity (unaltered) would be as though you suddenly went from weighing approximately 180 lbs to suddenly weighing as much as a dozen Mount Everest's... I just can't see what the advantage would be for the Coluans to attempt it.

Further.. one system failure and it's goodbye!

So, why bother attempting it? What would be the point?

The resources involved in such an extreme endeavor would, logically, be better utilized elsewhere. And Coluans are known for their pragmatism.

Artificial environments in orbit around it? Sure.

Attempting to Terra-form it? Sorry. Still can't see it.

Aw Georgehaze, let us have our fun

Seriously though, I do understand and appreciate the science you are applying here. It's just too much fun for us to pretend it really is Colu somehow.

Well if fun is crushing Brainy into a molecularly thin splorpee sure. I know some feel he is a panel hog but that seems downright overkill.

It's all a clever Coluan gravity-lensing distortion screen that makes their world look totally uninhabitable to distant viewers, so that they never get bothered by resource raiders or Galactus or space-vacuum-cleaner-salesmen.

You just can't let me have my amusement, can you?

*huffs*

I'd say Blockade Boy gave us lots of amusement already, by giving us the mental image of a spectacularly flat Brainy!

I bet he'd still be thinking of theorems to disprove while he's getting all squishy.

But that leads to "Holy Smokes He's A Toon!"

Instead of giant hammers, he'll summon COMPUTOs and Anywhere Machines from thin air!

Oh, the things I could do with an Anywhere Machine. ~heeeeeee~

Oh man, Legion in Toontown would be so cool.

Brainy's mind would go *splat* just trying to figure out cartoon physics!

and I'm sure Gates would have a lot to say about how toons live.