. 24/7 Space News .
EXO WORLDS
Kepler telescope delivers new planetary discovery from the grave
by Staff Writers
Manchester UK (SPX) Apr 04, 2022

To see the effect at all requires almost perfect alignment between the foreground planetary system and a background star. The chance that a background star is affected this way by a planet is tens to hundreds of millions to one against. But there are hundreds of millions of stars towards the centre of our Galaxy. So Kepler just sat and watched them for three months.

A new study by an international team of astrophysicists, led by the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics has presented the amazing new discovery of a near-identical twin of Jupiter orbiting a star at a colossal distance of 17,000 light years from Earth.

The exoplanet, K2-2016-BLG-0005Lb, is almost identical to Jupiter in terms of its mass and its distance from its sun was discovered using data obtained in 2016 by NASA's Kepler space telescope. The exoplanetary system is twice as distant as any seen previously by Kepler, which found over 2,700 confirmed planets before ceasing operations in 2018.

The system was found using gravitational microlensing, a prediction of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, and is the first planet to be discovered from space in this way. The study has been submitted to the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and has been made available as a preprint on ArXiv.org.

PhD student, David Specht from The University of Manchester is the lead author on the new research. To find an exoplanet using the microlensing effect the team searched through Kepler data collected between April and July 2016 when it regularly monitored millions of stars close to the centre of the Galaxy. The aim was to look for evidence of an exoplanet and its host star temporarily bending and magnifying the light from a background star as it passes by the line of sight.

"To see the effect at all requires almost perfect alignment between the foreground planetary system and a background star", said Dr Eamonn Kerins, Principal Investigator for the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) grant that funded the work. Dr Kerins adds: "The chance that a background star is affected this way by a planet is tens to hundreds of millions to one against. But there are hundreds of millions of stars towards the centre of our Galaxy. So Kepler just sat and watched them for three months."

Following the development of specialised analysis methods, candidate signals were finally uncovered last year using a new search algorithm presented in a study led by Dr Iain McDonald, at the time an STFC-funded postdoctoral researcher, working with Dr Kerins. Among five new candidate microlensing signals uncovered in that analysis one showed clear indications of an anomaly consistent with the presence of an orbiting exoplanet.

Five international ground-based surveys also looked at the same area of sky at the same time as Kepler. At a distance of around 135 million km from Earth, Kepler saw the anomaly slightly earlier, and for longer, than the teams observing from Earth. The new study exhaustively models the combined datasets showing, conclusively, that the signal is caused by a distant exoplanet.

"The difference in vantage point between Kepler and observers here on Earth allowed us to triangulate where along our sight line the planetary system is located", says Dr Kerins.

"Kepler was also able to observe uninterrupted by weather or daylight, allowing us to determine precisely the mass of the exoplanet and its orbital distance from its host star. It is basically Jupiter's identical twin in terms of its mass and its position from its Sun, which is about 60% of the mass of our own Sun."

Later this decade NASA will launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space telescope. Roman will find potentially thousands of distant planets using the microlensing method. The European Space Agency's Euclid mission, due to launch next year, could also undertake a microlensing exoplanet search as an additional science activity.

Dr Kerins is Deputy Lead for the ESA Euclid Exoplanet Science Working Group. "Kepler was never designed to find planets using microlensing so, in many ways, it's amazing that it has done so. Roman and Euclid, on the other hand, will be optimised for this kind of work. They will be able to complete the planet census started by Kepler." he said.

"We'll learn how typical the architecture of our own solar system is. The data will also allow us to test our ideas of how planets form. This is the start of a new exciting chapter in our search for other worlds."

Research Report: "Kepler K2 Campaign 9: II. First space-based discovery of an exoplanet using microlensing"


Related Links
Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics
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
NASA confirms more than 5,000 planets outside the solar system
Washington DC (UPI) Mar 22, 2021
The total number of confirmed planets in the universe ticked past 5,000 this week with the addition of 65 exoplanets, NASA says. The space agency said the confirmed planets are just a small fraction of the billions of planets the Milky Way likely holds. That number only increases when considering galaxies outside our own. The newly added exoplanets - worlds that exist outside our solar system - were confirmed using multiple detection methods and through peer-reviewed scientific papers, ... 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
UCF part of historic civilian space flight to ISS

Space tourism: the arguments in favor

Arctic simulation of Moon-like habitat shows wellbeing sessions keep you sane

Brazilian Space Chief Says Nations Should Think Long-Term, Keep Space Out of Geopolitics

EXO WORLDS
ISRO likely to launch seven satellites during current year: Govt

NASA working around valve issue to complete testing of Artemis

First all-private mission docks with ISS

Arianespace wins new contract to launch Sentinel-1C observation satellite on board Vega-C

EXO WORLDS
NASA's Pioneering Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Awarded Collier Trophy

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover reroutes away from 'Gator-Back' rocks

Citizen scientists help map ridge networks on Mars

Sol 3436: Motion Accomplished

EXO WORLDS
Tianzhou 2 re-enters Earth's atmosphere, mostly burns up

Shenzhou XIII astronauts prep for return

China's Tianzhou-2 cargo craft leaves space station core module

China's space station to support large-scale scientific research

EXO WORLDS
US, Russia Should Cooperate on Leveraging Private Investment for Space Programs - Expert

The race to dominate satellite internet heats up

HawkEye 360 launches next-generation Cluster 4 satellites

Kleos launches Patrol Mission satellites

EXO WORLDS
L3Harris awarded $117M space object-tracking modernization contract

3D-printed bone

Lockheed Martin releases open-source interface standard for on-orbit docking

New cutting-edge thermoplastic materials for the aerospace sector

EXO WORLDS
Hubble probes extreme weather on ultra-hot Jovian exoplanets

Kepler telescope delivers new planetary discovery from the grave

NASA simulator helps to shed light on mysteries of Solar System

A Beacon in the Galaxy: Updated Arecibo Message for Potential FAST and SETI Projects

EXO WORLDS
A closer look at Jupiter's origin story

17-year Neptune study reveals surprising temperature changes

SwRI scientists connect the dots between Galilean moon, auroral emissions on Jupiter

Juice's journey and Jupiter system tour









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.