Spitzer Telescope Discovers Planets Via Infrared

DirtyJ writes "Astronomers using the Spitzer Space Telescope have for the first time discovered two extrasoloar planets by directly detecting light from the planets themselves. Usually planets are discovered by indirectly inferring their presence from the wobble of star they orbit, but Spitzer has been able to directly detect these objects at Infrared wavelengths. Nifty conceptual images and videos are available."

Comments

Hot Stuff!

[billstewart]

Not only did they discover them using infrared, but one really interesting thing about this is that it's the first time that they've directly seen light from one of the planets they discovered, as opposed to previous discoveries which have only seen the light of the star being occluded as the planet passes in front of it. Really nice.

Planet "X"

[H_Fisher]

If this concept works in the long run, I wonder how (if at all) it might be used to find the "tenth planet" that some scientists think might be orbiting beyond Pluto?

If and when the Hubble is updated, could this type of gear be added, or orbited in tandem, to allow both visual and infared examination of space? (IANA astronaut, so if this sounds stupid...)

Re:Planet "X"

[Anonymous Coward]

For those that even consider Pluto a planet and not just a very big KBO...

Reason why Pluto shouldn't be called a planet.
1) Orbit lies outside the planet the other planets orbit in.
2) It's smaller then many moon.
3) Many large asteroids also have moons.
4) Other large KBO's, like Pluto, are in orbital resonance with Neptune.

Reasons to keep Pluto a planet.
1) Don't have to reprint text books, thus US schools can keep using ones that state 'Someday, man may walk on the moon'/
2) It was discovered by an American!
3) Opposing the scientific method, which would surely today call Pluto, KBO 24601 or something, and keeping with tradition shows science cares and tradition.

How about...

[Anonymous Coward]

...the ACTUAL infrared picture, instead of just an artist's rendition. They took at least one IR pic, let's see it.

IR temperature reading?

[RealUlli]

From the article:

The Spitzer data told the astronomers that both planets are at least a steaming 1,000 Kelvin (727 degrees Celsius, 1340 Fahrenheit). These measurements confirm that hot Jupiters are indeed hot.

I wonder, what would be the reading someone would get from outside our atmosphere by looking at overcast sitting in the sunlight?

Clouds are pretty good reflectors of visible as well as infrared light, afaik, so they should appear to be pretty hot...

Regards, Ulli

Re:IR temperature reading?

[astrobabe]

While clouds are significants sources of albedo, the Earth would still not appear very "hot" as our atmosphere is general is quite cool. A planned instrument for a Mars orbiter will likely contain a spectrograph which will be used to look back at Earth to give astrobiologists an idea what the atmospheres of extrasolar planets with life may look like from a distance.

The ACTUAL DATA

[cinnamon colbert]

don't look entirely convincing, espcially in the second case

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ss c2 005-09/ssc2005-09a.shtml

did anyone see how they discount things like solar flares

Re:It's About Time

[WebHostingGuy]

I agree with the technology being there already. I think NASA was feeling the heat from amateur astonomers pointing their webcams at the stars so they decided to capture the headlines first. ;)

Detecting different types of light

[OriginalSpaceMan]

Couldn't a similar method be applied to detect unnatural light? Say... an alien NYC? It could greatly increase our efforts in finding intellegent life outside of our own. At least smart enough to make a lightbulb.

So what about names?

[serutan]

Has anybody started arguing over what/how to name these extrasolar planets? They probably have cryptic alphanumerical designations like other celestial bodies, but I wonder if anyone has proposed any planet names?