. 24/7 Space News .
EXO WORLDS
Exoplanet rediscovery is step toward finding habitable planets
by Staff Writers
Warwick UK (SPX) Jul 23, 2020

"NGTS-11b has a temperature of only 160C - cooler than Mercury and Venus. Although this is still too hot to support life as we know it, it is closer to the Goldilocks zone than many previously discovered planets which typically have temperatures above 1,000C."

The rediscovery of a lost planet could pave the way for the detection of a world within the habitable 'Goldilocks zone' in a distant solar system.

The planet, the size and mass of Saturn with an orbit of thirty-five days, is among hundreds of 'lost' worlds that University of Warwick astronomers are pioneering a new method to track down and characterise in the hope of finding cooler planets like those in our solar system, and even potentially habitable planets.

Reported in Astrophysical Journal Letters, the planet named NGTS-11b orbits a star 620 light-years away and is located five times closer to its sun than Earth is to our own.

The planet was originally found in a search for planets in 2018 by the Warwick-led team using data from NASA's TESS telescope. This uses the transit method to spot planets, scanning for the telltale dip in light from the star that indicates that an object has passed between the telescope and the star.

However, TESS only scans most sections of the sky for 27 days. This means many of the longer period planets only transit once in the TESS data. And without a second observation the planet is effectively lost.

The University of Warwick led team followed up one of these 'lost' planets using the telescopes at the Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) in Chile and observed the star for seventy-nine nights, eventually catching the planet transiting for a second time nearly a year after the first detected transit.

Dr. Samuel Gill from the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick said: "By chasing that second transit down we've found a longer period planet. It's the first of hopefully many such finds pushing to longer periods.

"These discoveries are rare but important, since they allow us to find longer period planets than other astronomers are finding. Longer period planets are cooler, more like the planets in our own solar system.

"NGTS-11b has a temperature of only 160C - cooler than Mercury and Venus. Although this is still too hot to support life as we know it, it is closer to the Goldilocks zone than many previously discovered planets which typically have temperatures above 1,000C."

The Goldilocks zone refers to a range of orbits that would allow a planet or moon to support liquid water: too close to its star and it will be too hot, but too far away and it will be too cold.

Co-author Dr. Daniel Bayliss from the University of Warwick said: "This planet is out at a thirty-five days orbit, which is a much longer period than we usually find them. It is exciting to see the Goldilocks zone within our sights."

Co-author Professor Pete Wheatley from the University of Warwick said: "The original transit appeared just once in the TESS data, and it was our team's painstaking detective work that allowed us to find it again a year later with NGTS.

"NGTS has twelve state-of-the-art telescopes, which means that we can monitor multiple stars for months on end, searching for lost planets. The dip in light from the transit is only 1% deep and occurs only once every 35 days, putting it out of reach of other telescopes."

Dr. Gill adds: "There are hundreds of single transits detected by TESS that we will be monitoring using this method. This will allow us to discover cooler exoplanets of all sizes, including planets more like those in our own solar system. Some of these will be small rocky planets in the Goldilocks zone that are cool enough to host liquid water oceans and potentially extraterrestrial life."

Research Report: "NGTS-11 b (TOI-1847 b): A Transiting Warm Saturn Recovered from a TESS Single-Transit Event"


Related Links
University Of Warwick
Lands Beyond Beyond - extra solar planets - news and science
Life Beyond Earth


Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly


paypal only
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal


EXO WORLDS
Astronomers track down 'lost' worlds spotted but unconfirmed by TESS survey
Washington DC (UPI) Jul 21, 2020
One by one, an international team of astronomers is rediscovering "lost" worlds first spotted, but unconfirmed, by NASA's TESS telescope. One of those rediscovered worlds, described this week in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, is NGTS-11b, an exoplanet with the size and mass of Saturn but an orbit of just 35 days. NGTS-11b circles a star located 620 light-years away from Earth. NASA's TESS telescope usually scans sections of the sky for 27 days. The observatory's images often capture ... read more

Comment using your Disqus, Facebook, Google or Twitter login.



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

EXO WORLDS
Duckweed is an incredible, radiation-fighting astronaut food

Spacewalk on Tuesday will conclude space station power upgrade

NASA scientist over the Moon with homegrown radish research

NASA touts Russia ties as Rogozin dismisses Artemis as political

EXO WORLDS
NASA Teams Load Artemis I Rocket Hardware on Barge for Trip to Kennedy

Two US astronauts to come home on SpaceX ship on August 2

Soyuz Launches From Kourou to Resume in October, German Aerospace Centre Says

New electric propulsion chamber explores the future of space travel

EXO WORLDS
Emirates launches first Mars probe with help from UC Berkeley

Human exploration of Mars is on the horizon

Emirati 'Hope' probe heads for Mars

First Arab space mission to Mars launches from Japan

EXO WORLDS
Tianwen 1 probe to soon blast off for Mars

China's newest carrier rocket fails in debut mission

China's tracking ship wraps up satellite launch monitoring

Final Beidou launch marks major milestone in China's space effort

EXO WORLDS
British defense ministry, Airbus finalize $628.5M contract for Skynet upgrade

Airbus expands its SpaceDataHighway with second satellite

China launches new commercial telecommunication satellite

Satellite for US Air Force launched as part of L3Harris' Responsive Constellation Contract

EXO WORLDS
Parts come together this year for DARPA's robotic in-space mechanic

Millennium Space Systems completes DRAG RACER satellite qualification ahead of orbital debris mission

World leading experts to spearhead $20m of space sector by SmartSat CRC

NASA's Next Laser Communications Demo Installed, Integrated on Spacecraft

EXO WORLDS
Could mini-Neptunes be irradiated ocean planets

Astronomers track down 'lost' worlds spotted but unconfirmed by TESS survey

Artificial intelligence predicts which planetary systems will survive

'Disk Detective' Needs Your Help Finding Disks Where Planets Form

EXO WORLDS
Subaru Telescope and New Horizons explore the outer Solar System

The collective power of the solar system's dark, icy bodies

Ocean in Jupiter's moon Europa "could be habitable"

Evidence supports 'hot start' scenario and early ocean formation on Pluto









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news 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. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. 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. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.