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Extrasolar Planet's Light Observed

Posted by jamie on from the insanely-precise-spectral-analysis dept.

Last week we ran a story about a visually-detected planet orbiting HD 209458 - its star dimmed when the planet passed before it. Today, Richey points us to a "a BBC story about how astronomers have actually picked up light reflecting off an extrasolar planet. They've managed to perform a basic analysis of its atmosphere from it." Check out the three elements they believe they found.

8 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Oxygen? by rde · · Score: 3

    Woo, oxygen. If I remember my astrobiology correctly, this would be taken as a sign of life if it weren't on a planet four times the mass of jupiter, and with a year of less than four of your Earth days.

    Note to everyone who reads science fiction: silicon has a lot of the properties of carbon; this does not mean that silicon-based life (as we sort of know it) is possible. Don't jump to conclusions.

    You've got to wonder, though, what the astronomers have discovered when they refuse to talk to the BBC.

    1. Re:Oxygen? by Bearpaw · · Score: 3
      Woo, oxygen. If I remember my astrobiology correctly, this would be taken as a sign of life ...

      IIRC, it would need to be a high concentration of "free" oxygen (O2). It wouldn't be conclusive, but it would be strong evidence. O2 is so reactive that in order for a high concentration of it to exist, there would need to be some source constantly replenishing the supply. (In Earth's case, the source is the large quantity of life that produces oxygen as a by-product.)

      I don't remember if spectroscopy is able to distinguish between the existence of free oxygen and oxygen in combination with other things.

    2. Re:Oxygen? by DanaL · · Score: 3

      You've got to wonder, though, what the astronomers have discovered when they refuse to talk to the BBC

      They are probably just being cautious with there discovery. I imagine they don't want to over-hype stuff, get everyone's hope up and then say, "Oops, we made a mistake, the results were false."

      Apparently, they hadn't sent the results to any journals, so their results probably have not been peer-reviewed yet.

      Dana

  2. Why oxygen *is* revelant by Enoch+Root · · Score: 3
    Now, a lot of people have pointed out that it's somewhat useless to wager that there is life (As We Know It (tm) anyway) on that planet. Of course, being 4 times the size of Jupiter, and with a revolution of 3 *days*, it must be a bit hectic up there, to put it mildly.

    But: the presence of oxygen is revelant, in the sense that it's a pretty high coincidence that oxygen can be found there, if it is indeed due to chance. This is the same argument than when the first exoplanets were discovered: people pointed out they were large, surely lifeless masses of gas, but the point is not that. The point is, planets *do* exist out there, around other stars. That's mighty big, as it shows that planet formation is universal, and not a freak accident.

    From there, it only looks good. If now we can observe the light off a planet (though I bet the specific conditions for observing such a light is in the range of probabilities of seeing a gravitational lens effect), it means we're moving forward to the day we'll be able to observe an Earth-type planet up there somewhere. And from there, it's a simple question of sending a radio signal directly at that planet.

    So, stop saying it's irrevelant. It's a small step, but it's revelant as hell. Ten years ago, I could only dream that scientists would pick out the signs of an extra-solar planet. Now the possibility of finding a planet the size of our own is becoming more and more a reality. And if that's not something to celebrate, I don't know what is.

    "The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."

  3. The obvious questions... by Hanno · · Score: 3

    ...will the Chinese send a manned craft there?

    ...will the Chinese launch a cyber attack against that planet? Of course, using modified, evil closed-source seti@home clients?

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    You may like my a cappella music
  4. Exploration by The+Good+Reverend · · Score: 3

    I remember reading books on astronomy when I was growing up; there are 9 planets, many moons, and they're all in our solar system. Scientists think there are probably other planets out there, but they can't be sure.

    The books I was reading, in class and outside, were written in the late 80s and early 90s. An now, 10 years later, we've discovered scores of planets, and even seen light from one of them! It's amazing! I remember being angry to hear that funding for space travel/exploration was being cut every year; I could never say why I knew we needed to continue this research, but I just knew we did. We HAVE to go to Mars. We HAVE to send out more deep space probes. We HAVE to go back to the moon.

    We're explorers. We always have been. These findings of planets have made it to the late night talk show monologue jokes, Comedy Central's The Daily Show, and most major media outlets. There's interest again. I just hope we keep it up and make sure we don't stop exploring because "there's better things we could be doing with our money"

    The Good Reverend

  5. Wow. by Otto · · Score: 3

    Okay, let's summarize:

    -Magnesium, silicon and oxygen found (no proportions given out).
    -Huge planet. 4 Jupiter masses
    -3.3 day year

    Well, if it's 4 J-masses, and whips that fast around it's sun, I'd bet it's always facing the same side towards the sun. Probably causes some pretty damn spetacular tides on that sun too (think solar matter waves 1000 miles high :-)...

    Now oxygen != life guaranteed. They give no clue on how much O^2 has been found, nor if it's cool enough to be O^2 in the first place. If the place is too hot, molecules might not be an option. This is a possibility since it's mighty close to the sun, remember?

    Still cool. Probably the only reason they can get any light off it it because it is so close to it's sun, and gets enough light to reflect well. Also, it's damn lucky that the ecliptic planes cross just right to see it at all.

    Life is probably out. Jupiter is what, 20 G's? and this thing is around 80? Nah. My best guess: it's so damn hot and massive that it's nearly a star anyway. Give it a few hundred years or so, it'll crash into the star itself, and give the astronomers some real eye-candy.


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    - 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.
  6. Vaporized Rock, or, Oxygen != Life by ENOENT · · Score: 4

    In this case, the presence of oxygen in the atmosphere does not indicate the presence of life. In fact, given the two other elements detected (silicon and magnesium), it indicates a climate that is singularly inhospitable to any biology at all.

    The atmosphere is vaporized rock. Now that's hot.

    Rocks, at least the crustal rocks on Earth, consist mainly of oxygen, silicon, and magnesium, with a few trace elements to make things interesting.

    Given that this planet is so close to its star, it's not surprising that the surface tempurature is hot enough to boil rocks.

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    That's "Mr. Soulless Automaton" to you, Bub.