# Planet Makes Star It's Bitch **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 25, 2005, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-makes-star-its-bitch/305504 "2005-05-25T22:15:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-makes-star-its-bitch/305504/1 "2005-05-25T22:15:36Z")
[Take it you big flaming ball of gas!](http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050523_star_tide.html) > [@](#): > > In a reversal of roles, a planet has gravitationally bullied its star to rotate in step with the planet’s orbit. The star’s behavior is similar to that of our Moon, which turns just fast enough to keep one face always pointing at the Earth. > > It is unusual, however, to see the larger body – in this case a star 1.4 times the mass of the Sun – being tidally locked by a smaller body. > > “This is truly a stellar story of ‘tail wags dog,’” said Jaymie Matthews of the University of British Columbia at the annual meeting of the Canadian Astronomical Society in Montreal last week. > > Matthews is the principal investigator for the Canadian Space Agency’s MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of STars) space telescope, which recently observed slight variations in the light from tau Bootis (“tau Boo” for short) – a star 50 light years away with a planet in a tight, 3.3-day orbit around it. > > “The interactions between the star and the giant planet in the tau Bootis system are unlike anything astronomers have seen before,” Matthews said. “And they would be undetectable by any instrument on Earth or in space other than MOST.” > > Although it is suspected that many of the close-in exoplanets – so-called “hot Jupiters” – are tidally locked to their stars, this is the first detection of a star tidally locked to its planet. Knowing that the star’s rotation is synchronized should reveal much more about this strange system. ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-makes-star-its-bitch/305504/2 "2005-05-25T22:46:26Z")
While we’re on the topic of solar systems, check out [How the solar system went ‘totally nuts’](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7979868/). It talks about how “planets tugged on the rubble, the rubble tugged back, and that nudged Uranus”. Heh heh heh heh heh heh. **… _Its_ Bitch** , dammit! ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-makes-star-its-bitch/305504/3 "2005-05-25T23:50:01Z")
I just came in to comment on how awesome the title of this thread is. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-makes-star-its-bitch/305504/4 "2005-05-26T00:35:55Z")
But, it’s probably not right. A slowly rotating star will probably exchange energy with a nearby planet to force the _planet_ into a higher or lower orbit until the planet’s period matches the star’s rotation. (Note that energy is being transfered from the Earth’s rotational energy to the Moon giving it a higher orbit.) In short, the big guy still wins. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-makes-star-its-bitch/305504/5 "2005-05-26T02:37:37Z")
I’m Tau Bootis 1, Bitch! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-makes-star-its-bitch/305504/6 "2005-05-26T07:38:50Z")
Tau Bootis sounds like a very funky planet. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-makes-star-its-bitch/305504/7 "2005-05-26T08:05:23Z")
All y’all better be ready to par-tay, ‘cause we be kickin’ it Tau Bootis style! ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-makes-star-its-bitch/305504/8 "2005-05-26T08:06:51Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Tau Bootis sounds like a very funky planet. \*She’s a very funky world… (Boom diddy boom – boom boom – boom boom) The kind that don’t take smack from Stella… (Boom diddy boom – boom boom – boom boom) That sun will never make her turn around… (Boom diddy boom – boom boom – boom boom)\* ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-makes-star-its-bitch/305504/9 "2005-05-26T08:34:43Z")
Maybe Bootsy can come by in the Mothership. ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-makes-star-its-bitch/305504/10 "2005-05-26T09:17:19Z")
With a title like that, I just _had_ to click! ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-makes-star-its-bitch/305504/11 "2005-05-26T09:46:28Z")
One wonders what life on that planet (if it ever came about) would make of a helio-centric view of the universe 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-makes-star-its-bitch/305504/12 "2005-05-26T12:33:03Z")
> [@iamthewalrus(:3=](#): > > I just came in to comment on how awesome the title of this thread is. It is an awesome title. Of course, it would be even better without the syntactical error. But then, who’s counting? ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-makes-star-its-bitch/305504/13 "2005-05-26T12:39:16Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > One wonders what life on that planet (if it ever came about) would make of a helio-centric view of the universe 😉 and if they’ll have songs and books about ‘dark side of the sun’, ‘lost half of the sun’ and so forth. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2005, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-makes-star-its-bitch/305504/14 "2005-05-26T16:19:00Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m Tau Bootis 1, Bitch! They call me Mr Tau. I pity the star that calls me Bootsy.