Posted on 03/22/2005 6:20:30 PM PST by KevinDavis
A NASA (news - web sites) telescope peering far beyond our solar system has for the first time directly measured light from two Jupiter-sized gas planets closely orbiting distant stars, adding crucial features to astronomy's portrait of faraway worlds.
Studies of the infrared light streaming from the two giant planets suggest they are made of hot, swirling gases that reach a broiling 1,340 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.
"It's an awesome experience to realize we are seeing the glow of distant worlds," said astronomer David Charbonneau of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., whose team captured light from a planet in the constellation Lyra. "The one thing they can't hide is their heat."
Since the mid-1990s, scientists have discovered more than 130 of these so-called extrasolar planets. But the stars they orbit are so distant and shine so brightly that they tend to overwhelm the planets from view.
To find them, astronomers indirectly measure the tiny gravitational wobble that orbiting planets exert on their suns, or the brief dimming of starlight that occurs when a planet's orbit carries it in front of the star.
But hot celestial objects like these gas planets also emit infrared light. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detectors to collect these infrared signals. Infrared light contains specific signatures in different wave lengths that reveal more scientific characteristics about a space object than visible light.
One planet is known as HD 209458b, nicknamed Osiris. It orbits a sun-like star 150 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus. Its infrared signature was measured by astronomers at the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Details will appear Wednesday in the online version of the journal Nature.
The other extrasolar planet measured by the Harvard-Smithsonian team is known as TRes-1. It is located 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra. Results will be published in the June 20 issue of Astrophysical Journal.
Both planets circle their stars in less than four days at a distance of less than 4 million miles, explaining their very high temperatures.
In contrast, Earth orbits an average of 93 million miles from the sun.
It will indeed.
Some are fretting about the loss of an ultraviolet telescope, with the loss of Hubble.
ahh , why not?
There are, after all, millions of other galaxies out there.
And I'm banking on other worlds with people who have advanced beyond the barbaric one here!
And, hey, GOD, if you're out there, we need a visit NOW
It's just a machine and did what it was designed to do with excellent results, probably most of which won't be known for years as the data is reduced. It is time to move the astronomy science horizon out even further.
Whoa - they have light clear out there? Whaddya know...
Anything that far away seen from earth today may not even exist anymore.
Maybe it's the "lake of fire" spoken of in the Bible. Place for pedophiles who torture, rape, and murder children. Also an appropiate place for those promoting and committing the murder of Terri Schrivo.
ORRRRRRRR it's a hot planet.
Agreed. However, I will lament the loss of Hubble. The visible and UV is not being replaced.
Because it is modular, designed to be upgraded (the upgrades are ready to go) and it sees in bands nothing elsed does or can on that scale. Will be a terrible loss to science. I just don't understand this hatred for Hubble. We spend more mony on barbeque sauce in this country yearly than a Hubble repair. (Would not surprise me it the same went for Twinkies).
Too bad it can't see what Hubble does. They would make a wonderful pair of instruments.
Well ... yeah Thomas! All we need is a lot more money and then we'll try and prove it to you.
Yes, we can see light from beyond our galaxy. LOTS of light!
Can't we "sell" or heck, give the Hubble to the Russians? Or perhaps some private group...
It still needs servicing. New gyros etc. There is an entire new science package just waiting to go up.
There is still so very much to learn from Hubble.
We need the Shuttle to do this.
The infrared signature signifies otherwise. (I like that phrase.)
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