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Author
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Topic: first ever picture of exoplanet?
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Albireo
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3052
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posted 13 September 2004 10:56 PM
quote:
The image of a blurry red ball near a failed star may be the first picture ever snapped of a planet outside our solar system, an astronomer who helped find the object said.If it is a planet, it is probably a gas giant like Jupiter, said Professor Ben Zuckerman of the University of California, Los Angeles, part of an international team of scientists that found it. Details of the so-called Giant Planet Candidate Companion will be published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. The object is close by cosmic standards, some 230 light-years away from Earth. A light-year is about 10 trillion kilometres, the distance light travels in a year. Scientists have detected more than 100 of these so-called exoplanets, but have never directly observed them. Until now, they have confirmed these planets' existence by a characteristic wobble they cause in the stars they orbit. Another method is by looking for a temporary, tiny dimming of a star to indicate a planet is transiting, or passing in front of it. Other teams have captured images of what they initially believed were so-called exoplanets, objects orbiting stars other than our Sun. But they later proved to be brown dwarfs, stars without the mass to sustain nuclear fusion at their cores.
The rest.
From: --> . <-- | Registered: Sep 2002
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Albireo
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3052
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posted 14 September 2004 12:10 AM
Good catch... The few news stories about it don't even bother to mention that the image was made in near-infrared light. The press release at the ESO site has more information. They probably shifted everything toward the blue end of the spectrum, so the red dwarf appears blue, and the newly discovered infrared object appears red. They were able to image the planet (if it is that) because it orbits a relatively dim brown dwarf, as you mention, and also because it's five times the size of Jupiter, and further away from its star than Pluto is from our sun. 
Larger version here.
[ 14 September 2004: Message edited by: Albireo ]
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Bernard W
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 5735
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posted 17 September 2004 12:22 AM
As a rule, any star that has less then 8% of the mass of our Sun is not massive enough to ignite nuclear fusion. As a comparison, the planet Jupiter's mass is about 0.1% of that of the Sun.Dozens of 'exoplanets' have been found with masses corresponding to a few Jupiters. As those objects are extremely far (about a million times more distant than the Sun-Earth distance) it is normal we discover the big planets first. If a planetary system like ours is typical, we can expect most system with big, gaseous planets like Jupiter also have small, rocky planets like the Earth. Maybe some with life. 'Is anybody else out there' is a question that will always fascinate humans. Unless we are stupid enough to destroy ourselves, we will find out one day.
From: Algonquin Park, Ontario | Registered: May 2004
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