Astronomers spot new planet
Posted on 01/07/2003 3:02:16 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Astronomers spot new planet
It is most distant body found orbiting star other than the sun
01/07/2003
SEATTLE - Astronomers marked a milestone Monday in their hunt for planets beyond the solar system, announcing the discovery of the most distant planet ever detected orbiting a star other than the sun.
The new planet is about 5,000 light-years (about 30 million billion miles) away. The discovery is the first accomplished by watching a star's light dim as a planet slides across its disk - a technique recently polished by astronomers.
Such eclipses can reveal the existence of planets far more distant than previously seen. "We believe the door has been wide opened to go and discover new Earths," said astronomer Dimitar Sasselov in Seattle, at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
Finding a truly Earthlike planet - about the same size and in roughly the same orbit as Earth - remains a much-prized scientific goal.
More than 100 planets are known to orbit stars other than the sun. But the new discovery means that astronomers can hunt planets beyond the previous limit of about 250 light-years (1.5 quadrillion miles). That's as far as scientists have detected planets using the "radial velocity" method, which detects the slight wiggle of a star caused by the gravitational tug of an orbiting planet.
The eclipse technique can be used on stars that are much dimmer and farther away, Dr. Sasselov said. On the flip side, it also requires that the planetary system be oriented so that the planet passes between the Earthbound astronomer and the target star.
William Cochran, an astronomer at the University of Texas at Austin, said the discovery demonstrates that eclipses can be used to discover new worlds.
"This is something people have been thinking about for 20 years," he said.
The newfound planet orbits a dim star called OGLE-TR-56 in the constellation Sagittarius. The planet zips around the star once every 29 hours - the fastest rate known, and dizzying compared to the Earth's 365-day pace.
The planet lies so close to its star - one-fiftieth of the distance between the Earth and the sun - that it's hot enough for iron to vaporize and rain back onto its surface, said Dr. Sasselov.
His research team, based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., saw that OGLE-TR-56 dimmed every 29 hours and deduced that a planet might exist there. The scientists confirmed their hunch with the Keck telescope on Hawaii, watching the star wiggle under the gravitational influence of its planet.
The team is looking at two other distant stars that may also have planets, Dr. Sasselov said.
NASA plans to launch the Kepler spacecraft by 2007 to hunt for other planetary eclipses.
E-mail awitze@dallasnews.com
I'll abstain from making the obligatory "Uranus" joke.
(a) Very thick and (b) very insulated :o)
Stainless steel? No...that melts at around 2500º F.
I suppose you'd need some type of ceramic umbrella.
The star would be at the center of the Ringworld...supposedly 93 million miles from it's surface. That type of ribbon around a star would likely be undetectable by the technique used to find HD 209458b.
Man, can you imagine major elections almost TWICE per Earth week?! LOL...
Mark another place off my list of vacation spots.
Perhaps. But I was only going by the perameters of the original, and thus far, only Ringworld.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.