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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."
Now the world has gone to bed,
Darkness won't engulf my head,
I can see by infrared,
How I hate the night.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
We'll strip mine the other planets later?
If it weren't for the 2-minute delay between posts...
Just don't feed the trolls (tt)
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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.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
the planets are not newly discovered. they were previously known, but not directly imaged before.
If I were providing the conceptual images I would DEFINITELY have included more orbiting alien Death-Stars. Honestly, these conceptual artists have no imaginations!
The gift of death metal does not smile on the good looking.
Is anyone else interested in the techical specifications of the Spitzer? I hadn't heard of it till today...
from About Spitzer
The Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly SIRTF, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility) was launched into space by a Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida on 25 August 2003. During its 2.5-year mission, Spitzer will obtain images and spectra by detecting the infrared energy, or heat, radiated by objects in space between wavelengths of 3 and 180 microns (1 micron is one-millionth of a meter). Most of this infrared radiation is blocked by the Earth's atmosphere and cannot be observed from the ground. Consisting of a 0.85-meter telescope and three cryogenically-cooled science instruments, Spitzer is the largest infrared telescope ever launched into space
Robert Bindler
A Computer Science student's views on technology.
While they did discover them using IR, the technique was looking at eclipse intensity depth rather than direct observation. Good stuff though!
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...)
In an age when scientists attempt to prove what they already believe, it's nice to know that there are still some who practice science for the sake of discovery:
"We're back to square one," said Dr. Sara Seager, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, co-author of the Deming paper. "For us theorists, that's fun."
Ah, if we could all enter into an investigation with a blank slate free of preconceived notions, there's no telling what we'll find.
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
Well then again, it's a blue star. So... it shouldn't have that hard to detect. Damn she's hot, I'd love to get her in the solarsack.
In America, you spam computers In Soviet Russia, computers spam you!
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
Simple things should be simple, complex things should be possible.
Yes Spitzer has been in science operations for over a year now. These detections were made with the two imagers- IRAC and MIPS. IRAC is the shorter wavelength camera (the observations were done at 8 microns) and MIPS the longer wavelength camera (observations done at 24 microns). Both planets are approximate 1000 degrees Kelvin and are Jupiter class with respect to mass.HD 209458b is 0.68 times the mass of Jupiter and has a radius about 1.35 times Jupiter's. The second planet- TrES1 has a mass equal to 0.76 Jupiter masses and is 1.04 times the radius of Jupiter. (and I do work for Spitzer and knew about these discoveries about 2 months ago when they first came into our Helpdesk which i run)
Although there is certainly no debate about these two objects being extrasolar planets, it is not the case that they were DISCOVERED using infrared. They were known extrasolar planets that were imaged in the IR using the spitzer telescope. Incidentally, they are not even the first pictures of extrasolar planets, as there is a nice one here from September of last year, that was reported on slashdot.
don't look entirely convincing, espcially in the second case
s c2 005-09/ssc2005-09a.shtml
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/s
did anyone see how they discount things like solar flares
From the site: There are two basic methods of detecting a planet's gravitational influence on its star:
* Astrometric Detection
* Radial Velocity Detection
The first method - Astrometry - was hinted at in the previous paragraph. We observe a star and measure its position relative to distant background stars (hence the word "metric" in the name). As an orbiting body tugs at its companion star, we observe a change in position of the star. Measurements of a periodic change in position, back and forth, can indicate that something is possibly orbiting the star. Careful analysis of these measurements can tell us about the orbiting object.
The second method - Radial Velocity - is a completely different kind of measurement, but relies upon the same principle. That is, gravity. As an orbiting body tugs on its companion star, the light from the star will experience a Doppler shift. If the planet pulls the star slightly away from us on Earth, the starlight will be shifted towards longer wavelengths and appear more red; pulled slightly towards Earth, the starlight is shifted towards shorter wavelengths to appear more blue. To accurately measure this Doppler shift, we chose a known spectral line and observe its shift from red to blue and back.
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. ;)
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Go ahead and mod me down, but how can it be "Insightful" to point out "extrasolar" is misspelled, but someone pointing out that the word "asterisk" is misspelled is a Troll?
I suppose I'll be modded "Redundant" for pointing out what everyone else does -- that Slashdot moderation is ridiculously meaningless...
The inhabitants of a distant galaxy are complaining that their TVs keep changing channel for no apparent reason.
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.
You talk better than you fool!
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?