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Photo of First Extra-Solar Planet?
Anonymous Coward writes "According to NASA 'A major discovery from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope about a planet outside our Solar System will be announced in a Space Science Update on 27 November. The discovery marks an important new capability in efforts to uncover secrets about these newly discovered extrasolar planets.' Given the names of the individuals listed as speakers at this event, plus previous press releases and published papers, it is likely that the topic of discussion will focus upon planet(s) circling the sunlike star HD 209458."
Is it as pretty as Uranus?
Photo of First Extra-Solar Planet?
No. It's a series of photos showing a star getting 2% dimmer as a planet passes between it and us.
Nothing to get excited about unless you're an astro-physicist.
http://www.thehungersite.com
But don't get all excited. If we know about it then that means that it's a huge jupiter-like planet, either quite close to the sun or in a crazy orbit. If the results are from the Hubble, then it's more likely to be the former, rather than the latter (because it will cross the star more often). So, no inhabitable planet will be announced :(
I am impressed that they were able to take a shot at it with the hubble though. I'd be interested in knowing whether or not they could detect the planet's spectrum (wavelenghts of light reflected from the planet) in the glare of the much larger star. If they could that would mean that we could figure out its chemical makeup because different elements radiate different wavelengths of light.
Anyways, another congratulations is due to the planet searchers. They've really come along in the last five or so years.
The planets found so far are all in Jupiter's mass-class and all of them are in close orbits around the parent star. This makes it more likely that they are 'dud'-stars in a double star system, where one of the members did not attract enough mass to start thermonuclear reactions.
The techniques used to detect these giant planets in close orbit would at present not be able to detect the earth over interstellar instances. Likely not even Jupiter would be detected. This is good news, as there could be literally thousands of earth like planets within 100 light years, as we would be unable to detect them.
To be able to see earth like planets at earth like distances from their parent star, would require a much more advanced telescope than Hubble. The ideal place for this telescope would be on the far side of the moon, which could shield it from visible as well as infrared light from earth and the sun (50 % of the time). As the moon is also geologically very quiet compared to earth better performance would be achieved. This is further augmented by the lower moon gravity which would make it possible to produce stable telescopes with a mirror-diameter larger than 6 meters, which seems to be the maximum here on earth for one-piece mirrors.
Well enough said about this. Applaud to NASA for doing something worthwhile.
Yours Yazeran
Plan: To go to Mars one day with a hammer.
You have to be able to detect the light from the planet before you can take a photo.
is it just me or does anyone else feel that the photo on the page linked to in the story which seems to show a planet in front of a star is a bit deceptive. the first thing i thought when i saw it was that it was the 'photo of first extra solar planet' in question. obviously that isnt the case but it would be nice if that were made a little clearer. although now that i think about it this is probably chrisd's fault since the actual link doesnt seem to imply the exsistance of a photo. how silly of me to believe a /. headline (o:
s/b: First Photo of Extra-Solar Planet?
Obviously if the Universe is on the order of 13B years old, the "first extra-solar planet" had long since been absorbed by the expansion of its star, then likely collapsed with the star into a brown dwarf.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
This headline and the linked photo are so completely absurd. Current telescopes still lack the power to resolve a star into anything more than a single point, let alone to a full size sphere which is capable of being eclipsed by a planet. Nowhere does the article mention anything about a photo. The picture in it is merely used to illustrate the concept of a planet.
A rabbit in the hand is worth 4 in the cage
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011127/ts/space_ planet_atmosphere_dc_2.html
A test that succeeds on a sample of precisely one is hardly proven to work. If I find a three-legged cat, I can't claim that any three-legged animal is a cat, or that all cats have three legs. Similarly, if similar signs are found on another world, that doesn't necessarily mean that life exists there - nor does their absence prove that it doesn't.
Although I will concede that finding similar signs would indicate a possibility of life...
The title of this thread is misleading. The discovery is that the researches have detected the *first* atmosphere around an extrasolar planet. This is indeed big news. The planet is Jupiter size and revolves around a sun like star about 150 light years away. Congrats to the researchers.
They did indeed "access the chemistry of a planet's atmosphere."
;-)
Did you hear a little inside information before you made that post?
That that is is that that that that is not is not.