 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| . |  |
. |
 by Staff Writers Kamuela HI (SPX) May 27, 2021
Current and former astronomers from the University of Hawai?i Institute for Astronomy (IfA) have wrapped up a massive collaborative study that set out to determine if most solar systems in the universe are similar to our own. With the help of W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea in Hawai?i, the 30-year planetary census sought to find where giant planets tend to reside relative to their host stars. In our solar system, the giant planets-Jupiter and Saturn-are found in the chilly outer regions, while smaller planets tend to orbit closer to the Sun. Earth lives in an intermediate tropical zone well-suited to life, at a distance of 1AU (astronomical unit) from the Sun. Jupiter is about 5 AU from the Sun, and Saturn is at 9 AU. An AU, the distance from the Earth to our Sun, is about 93 million miles. "Dynamically speaking, Jupiter and Saturn are the VIPs-Very Important Planets-of the solar system," said IfA Parrent Postdoctoral Fellow Lauren Weiss. "They are thought to have shaped the assembly of the terrestrial planets, potentially stunting the growth of Mars and slingshotting water-bearing comets toward Earth."
We Are Normal Researchers also found that giant planets tend to reside about 1 to 10 AU from their host stars, a mostly icy region located beyond these stars' temperate zones. The research team included Weiss, former IfA graduate student BJ Fulton, and former IfA professor Andrew Howard, who is now a Caltech professor of astronomy. Fulton, now a staff scientist at Caltech's astronomy center, received the Astronomical Society of the Pacific's 2018 Robert J. Trumpler Award, recognizing his PhD thesis work on the distribution of extrasolar planet masses as unusually important to astronomy. The new research is reported in two journal articles accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement. Lee Rosenthal, a graduate student at Caltech who works with Howard, is lead author of one study, and Fulton is lead author of the second paper.
Maunakea Plays Key Role in Data Collection The project, called the California Legacy Survey, originated in the Golden State in the 1990s; half of the data was obtained using Keck Observatory's High-Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES). It is the longest-duration exoplanet survey to date. Rosenthal explains that the survey was designed to be unbiased by carefully selecting random stars, "as if you could put your hand in a grab bag of stars and pull a random planet out." Working on this project as part of his PhD thesis, Rosenthal says it was "humbling to work on a 30-year project where some of the data are older than I am." In our solar system, we also have planets that are a bit smaller than Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, which are located out beyond Saturn. The California Legacy Survey is not sensitive to planets in that size range and at that distance. "While we can't detect smaller planets similar to Neptune and Uranus that are very distant from their stars, we can infer that the large gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn are extremely rare in the outermost regions of most exoplanetary systems," explained Fulton. "This survey is a great jumping-off point for future instruments that are sensitive to planets the size of Earth," said Howard, who is leading one such cutting-edge instrument, the Keck Planet Finder, which is expected to be shipped to Keck Observatory in 2022. The collaboration included researchers from IfA, Caltech, and the University of California, and primarily used Keck Observatory and the Shane and Automated Planet Finder telescopes at Lick Observatory, near San Jose, California. The team plans to continue to sift through data for new patterns and clues to help understand the characteristics and formation of other star systems, as well as our own solar system. They are also looking forward to next-generation surveys. The first paper in the series, led by Rosenthal, is titled, "The California Legacy Survey I. A Catalog of 177 Planets from Precision Radial Velocity Monitoring of 719 Nearby Stars Over Three Decades." The second paper in the series, led by Fulton, is titled, "California Legacy Survey II. Occurrence of Giant Planets Beyond the Ice Line."
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
| 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. |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Google
