Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




SKY NIGHTLY
Armchair astronomers find planet in four-star system
by Staff Writers
New Haven CT (SPX) Oct 16, 2012


A family portrait of the PH1 planetary system: The newly discovered planet is depicted in this artist's rendition transiting the larger of the two eclipsing stars it orbits. Off in the distance, well beyond the planet orbit, resides a second pair of stars bound to the planetary system. (Image by Haven Giguere/Yale)

A joint effort of citizen scientists and professional astronomers has led to the first reported case of a planet orbiting twin suns that in turn is orbited by a second distant pair of stars. Aided by volunteers using the Planethunters.org website, a Yale-led international team of astronomers identified and confirmed discovery of the phenomenon, called a circumbinary planet in a four-star system.

Only six planets are known to orbit two stars, according to researchers, and none of these are orbited by distant stellar companions.

"Circumbinary planets are the extremes of planet formation," said Meg Schwamb of Yale, lead author of a paper about the system presented at the annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in Reno, Nevada.

"The discovery of these systems is forcing us to go back to the drawing board to understand how such planets can assemble and evolve in these dynamically challenging environments."

Dubbed PH1, the planet was first identified by citizen scientists participating in Planet Hunters, a Yale-led program that enlists members of the public to review astronomical data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft for signs of planets. It is the project's first confirmed planet discovery.

The volunteers - Kian Jek of San Francisco and Robert Gagliano of Cottonwood, Arizona - spotted faint dips in light caused by the planet as it passed in front of its parent stars, a common method of finding extrasolar planets.

Schwamb, a Yale postdoctoral researcher, led the team of professional astronomers that confirmed the discovery and characterized the planet, following observations from the Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. PH1 is a gas giant with a radius about 6.2 times that of Earth, making it a bit bigger than Neptune.

"Planet Hunters is a symbiotic project, pairing the discovery power of the people with follow-up by a team of astronomers," said Debra Fischer, a professor of astronomy at Yale and planet expert who helped launch Planet Hunters in 2010. "This unique system might have been entirely missed if not for the sharp eyes of the public."

PH1 orbits outside the 20-day orbit of a pair of eclipsing stars that are 1.5 and 0.41 times the mass of the Sun. It revolves around its host stars roughly every 138 days.

Beyond the planet's orbit at about 1000 AU (roughly 1000 times the distance between Earth and the Sun) is a second pair of stars orbiting the planetary system.

"The thousands of people who are involved with Planet Hunters are performing a valuable service," said coauthor Jerome Orosz, who earned his Ph.D. at Yale in 1996 and is now associate professor of astronomy at San Diego State University.

"Many of the automated techniques used to find interesting features in the Kepler data don't always work as efficiently as we would like. The hard work of the Planet Hunters helps ensure that important discoveries are not falling through the cracks."

Gagliano, one of the two citizen scientists involved in the discovery, said he was "absolutely ecstatic to spot a small dip in the eclipsing binary star's light curve from the Kepler telescope, the signature of a potential new circumbinary planet."

He continued, "It's a great honor to be a Planet Hunter, citizen scientist, and to work hand-in-hand with professional astronomers, making a real contribution to science."

Jek expressed wonder at the possibility of the discovery: "It still continues to astonish me how we can detect, let alone glean so much information about another planet thousands of light years away just by studying the light from its parent star."

The paper is available on the arXiv preprint server and has been submitted to Astrophysical Journal. A team from Johns Hopkins University has been working on a separate paper on aspects of the planetary system.

.


Related Links
Yale University
Astronomy News from Skynightly.com






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








SKY NIGHTLY
A Good Reason to Wake Up at Dawn
Huntsville AL (SPX) Jul 05, 2012
Summer is a good time to relax, sleep late, enjoy a break from school or work. Waking before sunrise is just not done. This summer is a little different. To find out why, set your alarm for dawn. Every morning this July, the two brightest planets in the solar system will put on a show before sunrise. Look out any east-facing window to see Venus and Jupiter, shining side by side, so close togethe ... read more


SKY NIGHTLY
Giant smashup created the Moon, say scientists

University of Tennessee study confirms solar wind as source for moon water

Russia to launch lunar mission in 2015

Moon water could have solar source: study

SKY NIGHTLY
NMSU Graduate Student Looks For Indications Of Life On Mars In Possible Trace Methane Gas

Rover's Second Scoop Discarded, Third Scoop Commanded

Robotic Arm Tools Get To Work On Rock Outcrop

Curiosity Preparing for Second Scoop

SKY NIGHTLY
NASA must reinvest in nanotechnology research, according to new Rice University paper

Austrian space diver no stranger to danger

Baumgartner feat boosts hopes for imperilled astronauts

Austrian breaks sound barrier in record space jump

SKY NIGHTLY
China launches civilian technology satellites

ChangE-2 Mission To Lagrange L2 Point

Meeting of heads of ESA and China Manned Space Agency

China Spacesat gets 18-million-USD gov't support

SKY NIGHTLY
Crew Unloads Dragon, Finds Treats

Station Crew Opens Dragon Hatch

NASA and International Partners Approve Year Long ISS Stay

Year on ISS planned ahead of manned Mars mission

SKY NIGHTLY
AFSPC commander convenes AIB

Proton Lofts Intelsat 23 For Americas, Europe and Africa Markets

India to launch 58 space missions in next 5 years

SpaceX Dragon Successfully Attaches To Space Station

SKY NIGHTLY
Glitch could end NASA planet search

Ultra-Compact Planetary System Is A Touchstone For Understanding New Planet Population

Nearest Star Has Earth Mass Planet

Distant planet found circling with 4 stars

SKY NIGHTLY
Physicists crack another piece of the glass puzzle

Worldwide smartphone users top 1 bn: report

New paper reveals fundamental chemistry of plasma/liquid interactions

Google opens window to 'where Internet lives'




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement