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




EXO WORLDS
Astronomers Probe 'Evaporating' Planet Around Nearby Star with Hobby-Eberly Telescope
by Staff Writers
Fort Davis, TX (SPX) Jun 01, 2012


The planet HD 189733b is not like Earth - it's a gas giant 20 percent heavier than Jupiter that orbits 10 times as close to its parent star as Mercury does to our sun, an exotic type of planet astronomers have dubbed a "hot Jupiter."

Astronomers from The University of Texas at Austin and Wesleyan University have used the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at UT Austin's McDonald Observatory to confirm that a Jupiter-size planet in a nearby solar system is dissolving, albeit excruciatingly slowly, because of interactions with its parent star. Their findings could help astronomers better understand star-planet interactions in other star systems that might involve life.

The work will be published in the June 1 edition of The Astrophysical Journal in a paper led by Wesleyan University postdoctoral researcher Adam Jensen. The team includes University of Texas astronomers Michael Endl and Bill Cochran, as well as Wesleyan professor Seth Redfield.

The star, HD 189733, lies about 63 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula, the little fox.

In 2010 another team studied this star in ultraviolet light with the Hubble Space Telescope and discovered that its planet (called HD 189733b) is discharging hydrogen into space.

The Texas-Wesleyan study finds that this streaming hydrogen gas - studied in a different wavelength range by one of the world's largest ground-based telescopes - is much hotter than anyone knew. This temperature is important: It indicates that the violent flares this star is throwing out are interacting with the planet's atmosphere.

While this planet is not thought to be a home for life, such studies could help astronomers understand how interactions between "parent" stars and their "children" planets might affect life that could arise in other star systems.

"One day we will use similar techniques to probe the atmosphere of smaller, Earth-like planets," The University of Texas' Endl said. "I think the pace of progress is stunning, to say the least. Twenty years ago we didn't really know of any exoplanets, and now we probe and study their atmospheres."

The planet HD 189733b is not like Earth - it's a gas giant 20 percent heavier than Jupiter that orbits 10 times as close to its parent star as Mercury does to our sun, an exotic type of planet astronomers have dubbed a "hot Jupiter."

To date, astronomers have discovered nearly 700 planets orbiting stars in our galaxy (with billions suspected), but they have probed the atmospheres of only a handful,using space telescopes and the largest ground-based telescopes such as the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET).

Studies of this planet's atmosphere are possible because it passes in front of its parent star as seen from Earth.

"Each time the planet passes in front of the star," Redfield said, "the planet blocks some of the star's light. If the planet has no atmosphere, it will block the same amount of light at all wavelengths. However, if the planet has an atmosphere, gasses in its atmosphere will absorb some additional light." The passages are called transits.

In 2007 as a postdoctoral researcher at the McDonald Observatory, Redfield announced he had found sodium in this planet's atmosphere. That announcement was based on hundreds of HET observations spread out over a year, taken both with the planet in front of the star ("in-transit") and when the planet was not. Subtracting the latter from the former provided the planet's "transmission spectrum."

Astronomers determine the spectrum of a star or planet when spreading out the telescope-collected light into its component wavelengths - a more sophisticated version of passing light through a prism to produce a rainbow. The spectrum is like a bar code that astronomers can read to determine the object's chemical composition, temperature, speed and direction of motion.

Today, Redfield's postdoctoral fellow, Adam Jensen, is studying that same set of telescope observations and many more added by Endl in the intervening years.

Just determining the spectrum of a transiting planet, let alone being able to decode it, is a difficult feat. As this planet passes in front of its parent star, it blocks only 2.5 percent of the star's total light, plus another 0.3 percent for the planet's atmosphere. Teasing out that 0.3 percent and decoding it is the goal.

.


Related Links
McDonald Observatory
Lands Beyond Beyond - extra solar planets - news and science
Life Beyond Earth






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








EXO WORLDS
NSO To Use Venus Transit To Fine-Tune Search For Other Worlds
Washington DC (SPX) May 31, 2012
A century ago, scientists chased transits of Mercury and Venus in an effort to size up our solar system. Next week, they will use the last Venus transit for a century to learn how to size up other solar systems as we search for life in the universe. "Astronomers in the 18th and 19th centuries observed transits of Mercury and Venus to help measure the distance from Earth to Sun," said Dr. Frank H ... read more


EXO WORLDS
UA Lunar-Mining Team Wins National Contest

NASA Lunar Spacecraft Complete Prime Mission Ahead of Schedule

NASA Offers Guidelines To Protect Historic Sites On The Moon

Neil Armstrong gives rare interview - to accountant

EXO WORLDS
Wind may have driven avalanches on Martian dunes

On The Hunt For Light-Toned Veins Of Gypsum

Mars missions may learn from meteor Down Under

Waking Up with the Sun's Rays

EXO WORLDS
New Moon for India

Boeing Completes Software PDR Of New Crew Ship

NASA hails 'new era' in exploration

CU astronaut-alumnus Scott Carpenter looks back at 50th anniversary of Aurora 7 mission

EXO WORLDS
Why is China sending a woman into space?

China launches telecommunication satellite

Tiangong 1 Ready To Meet Shenzhou 9

Sri Lanka plans to launch its first satellite in 2015

EXO WORLDS
Capillarity in Space - Then and Now, 1962-2012

Dragon on board

SpaceX Launches Falcon 9 Dragon on Historic Mission

SpaceX Dragon Transports Student Experiments to Space Station

EXO WORLDS
SpaceX Dragon capsule splash lands in Pacific

US cargo ship on return voyage from space station

US cargo vessel prepares to leave space station

Once Upon a Time

EXO WORLDS
Astronomers Probe 'Evaporating' Planet Around Nearby Star with Hobby-Eberly Telescope

Venus transit may boost hunt for other worlds

NSO To Use Venus Transit To Fine-Tune Search For Other Worlds

Newfound exoplanet may turn to dust

EXO WORLDS
Netflix tops Apple in booming US online movies

The finest gold dust in the world

Microreactors to produce explosive materials

Short movies stored in an atomic vapor




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