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Exoplanets

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i'm putting this thread on my bookmarks, i will have to review it from page 1 later today. great source of knowledge !
 
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i'm putting this thread on my bookmarks, i will have to review it from page 1 later today. great source of knowledge !
Take your time, but in the meanwhile ... :p


The international team, led by scientists from University College London (UCL) in the UK, took observations of the nearby exoplanet 55 Cancri e, a super-Earth with a mass of 8 Earth-masses. It's located in the planetary system of 55 Cancri, a star ~ 40 ly from Earth.




Using observations made with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the scientists were able to analyze the atmosphere of this exoplanet. This makes it the first detection of gases in the atmosphere of a super-Earth. The results revealed the presence of hydrogen and helium, but no water vapor. The observations of 55 Cancri e's atmosphere suggest that the planet has managed to cling on to a significant amount of hydrogen and helium from the nebula from which it originally formed.

Super-Earths like 55 Cancri e are thought to be the most common type of planet in our galaxy. 55 Cancri e, however, is an unusual super-Earth as it orbits very close to its parent star. A year on the exoplanet lasts for only 18 hours and temperatures on the surface are thought to reach around 2000 degrees Celsius.

Intriguingly, the data also contain hints of the presence of hydrogen cyanide, a marker for carbon-rich atmospheres.

“Such an amount of hydrogen cyanide would indicate an atmosphere with a very high ratio of carbon to oxygen,” said Olivia Venot, KU Leuven, who developed an atmospheric chemical model of 55 Cancri e that supported the analysis of the observations.

“If the presence of hydrogen cyanide and other molecules is confirmed in a few years time by the next generation of infrared telescopes, it would support the theory that this planet is indeed carbon rich and a very exotic place,” concludes Jonathan Tennyson, UCL. “Although hydrogen cyanide, or prussic acid, is highly poisonous, so it is perhaps not a planet I would like to live on!”
 

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Evidently there's no direct image of 55 Cancri e. But I'll post some diagrams:



55 Cancri is in the constellation of Cancer. The star is visible to the naked eye, though better through binoculars. So if you have clear skies and some luck you can see the star, not the planet though lol.

Here's an accurate map of our solar neighborhood

 
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Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have measured the rotation rate of an extreme exoplanet by observing the varied brightness in its atmosphere. The researchers attribute the brightness variation to complex cloud patterns in the planet's atmosphere. The new Hubble measurements not only verify the presence of these clouds, but also show that the cloud layers are patchy and colorless.


The planet, called 2M1207b, is ~ 4 times more massive than Jupiter and is dubbed a "super-Jupiter." It's a companion to a brown dwarf called 2M1207, orbiting the object at a distance of 5 billion miles. The system resides 170 ly away from us.

The observations revealed that the exoplanet's atmosphere is hot enough to have "rain" clouds made of silicates: vaporized rock that cools down to form tiny particles with sizes similar to those in cigarette smoke. Deeper into the atmosphere, iron droplets are forming and falling like rain, eventually evaporating as they enter the lower levels of the atmosphere.

So at higher altitudes it rains glass, and at lower altitudes it rains iron. The atmospheric temperatures are between ~ 2200-2600 degrees Fahrenheit. The planet is hot because it's only ~ 10 million years old and is still contracting and cooling. The planet, however, will not maintain these sizzling temperatures. Over the next few billion years, the object will cool and fade dramatically. As its temperature decreases, the iron and silicate clouds will also form lower and lower in the atmosphere and will eventually disappear from view.

2M1207 completes one rotation approximately every 10 hours, spinning at about the same fast rate as Jupiter. This super-Jupiter is only ~ 5-7 times less massive than its brown-dwarf host. By contrast, our sun is ~ 1000 times more massive than Jupiter. The planets orbiting our sun formed inside a circumstellar disk through accretion. But the super-Jupiter and its companion may have formed throughout the gravitational collapse of a pair of separate disks.
 
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Astronomers have discovered a new exoplanet called K2-25b.





The planet orbits a red dwarf. The star is located in the Hyades star cluster, the closest open star cluster to Earth. Its stars are young, so their planets must be young, too. The planet is 4 times the size of Earth, or about the size of Neptune. The planet's large size for its parent star suggests that the planet might have a puffy hydrogen and helium atmosphere. Radiation from the star could slowly strip away this atmosphere over time.
 
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A team of researchers has created a computer model of the known universe and in using it to estimate the number of likely other exoplanets able to hold life, has found that there might be fewer Earth-like planets than has been thought.

The team took a logical approach in creating their model, first inputting data that described as much as is known about the early universe - then next adding data about known exoplanets and also information describing the laws of physics and the way they would work on the elements that made up the universe, and how they would grow or change over approximately 13.8 Gyr. They then took a virtual census and found the model had "created" ~ 700 quintillion exoplanets - but, to the surprise of the researchers, the vast majority of them were far older than planet Earth.

If life began on other planets far earlier (8±1 Gyr) than on Earth it should have matured beyond what we have here on Earth to the point that it would be not only noticeable to us, but likely dominant. But because we have not seen any sign of other life, it appears likely that none is there, or is close enough to spot, which suggests that Earth actually is much more unique than other recent models have been suggesting. The model also suggested that most exoplanets likely exist in galaxies that are a lot bigger than the Milky Way, and orbit stars that are quite different from our sun. To date, space scientists have identified ~ 2000 exoplanets, clearly a very small proportion of the total amount if the new model is to be viewed as accurate.
 
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A team of Chilean astronomers recently detected 2 'hot Jupiters' using the data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft. The planets, designated EPIC210957318b & EPIC212110888b, were discovered via the radial velocity method.

According to the paper, the smaller planet of the newly discovered duo [EPIC210957318b], orbits its parent sun-like star [slightly metal rich G dwarf with Teff=5675K], located ~ 970 ly from us, every 4.1 days. The mass of this exoplanet is between the Saturn and Jupiter masses (0.65 MJ) and its radius is 1.07 RJ. The temperatures on this planet range from 584 to 939 degrees Celsius.

EPIC212110888b is more massive and larger than Jupiter (1.63 MJ; 1.38 RJ). This planet orbits its host star every 3 days with temperatures spanning from 932 to 1430 degrees Celsius. The star, slightly more massive than Sun [late F dwarf solar metallicity star with Teff=6149K], lies some 1270 ly away from us.

Both planets have similar densities, close to half of Jupiter's.

 
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Good news: NASA's Kepler Space Telescope's got a new lease on life:

Engineers developed an innovative way to stabilize and control the spacecraft. This technique of using the sun as the "third wheel" has Kepler searching for planets again, but also making discoveries on young stars to supernovae.

 
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Giant exoplanets keep popping up. Those popped up in December 2015. And now others:



An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of 4 new giant exoplanets orbiting stars much bigger than our Sun.

The researchers were monitoring a sample of 166 bright giant stars that are observable from the southern hemisphere. Astronomers have computed a series of precision radial velocities of 4 giant stars: HIP8541, HIP74890, HIP84056 and HIP95124. By studying the periodic radial velocity signals, they have detected the presence of several substellar companions.

HIP8541b is the most massive of the newly found quartet of planets. With a mass of ∼ 5.5 MJ, this exoplanet also has a much longer orbital period than the other three worlds, equal to 1560 days. Its parent star is slightly more massive than the Sun and has a radius of nearly 8 R⊙.

The masses of other three planets - HIP74890b, HIP84056b and HIP95124b - are 2.4; 2.6 and 2.9 MJ respectively. Their orbital periods last nearly 819; 822 and 562 days respectively.

Their host stars (HIP 74890 and HIP 84056) are also of similar mass (1.7 M☉) and size (5.77 and 5.03 R⊙). Star HIP95124 is ∼ 2 times more massive than the Sun, with a radius of 5.12 R⊙.

Scientists conclude that giant planets are preferentially formed around metal-rich stars. Also, they conclude that they are more efficiently formed around more massive stars, in the mass range of M⋆ ∼ 1.0 - 2.1 M⊙.
 
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Astronomers were able to detect a signal of reflected light from eccentric exoplanet known as HD 20782 as it made its closest orbital approach to its star.

HD 20782 is ∼ 117 ly from us. It has the most eccentric orbit known, measured at an eccentricity of .96. This means that the planet moves in a nearly flattened ellipse, traveling a long path far from its star and then making a fast and furious slingshot around the star at its closest approach.

At the furthest point in its orbit, the planet is separated from its star by 2.5 AU. At its closest approach, it ventures as close as .06 AU (much closer than Mercury).
It's around the mass of Jupiter, but it's swinging around its star like it's a comet.

The percentage of light reflected from a planet is determined in part by the composition of its atmosphere. Planets shrouded in clouds full of icy particles, like Venus and Jupiter, for instance, are very reflective. But if a planet like Jupiter were to move too close to the Sun, the heat would remove the icy material in its clouds.

In some of the extrasolar, Jupiter-sized planets that tread short, circular orbits this phenomenon does appear to strip the atmospheres of reflective particles, making the planets appear "dark." But in the case of HD 20782, the atmosphere of the planet doesn't have a chance to respond. The time it takes to swing around the star is so quick that there isn't time to remove all the icy materials that make the atmosphere so reflective. Astronomers can't determine the exact makeup of HD 20782's atmosphere yet, but this newest observation does suggest that it might have an atmosphere with Jupiter-like, highly reflective cloud cover.
 
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HD 80606 b is about the size of Jupiter, though 4 times as massive, and resides in a system 190 ly from us, in the constellation Ursa Major.


This massive gas giant planet is in an extremely eccentric orbit around one star in a wide binary system, and experiences a more than 800-fold change in illumination over the course of each orbit.

HD 80606 b spends 111 days of its year traveling an oblong route away from and then returning toward its star. At its closest approach, the star-facing side of the planet boils up to an extreme 1400 K. Surprisingly, the planet cools in fewer than 10 hours as it orbits away.

The planet's rotation rate [the length of its day] is estimated to be 90 hours.
 
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At its closest approach, the star-facing side of the planet boils up to an extreme 1400 K. Surprisingly, the planet cools in fewer than 10 hours as it orbits away.
Much like the prison planet in Chronicles of Riddick.
It's got me beat how a planet can go through such extremes and still be in one piece.
 
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It's got me beat how a planet can go through such extremes and still be in one piece.

It's a gas giant. It can withstand anything. In fact, extremely large gas giants are called failed stars.

If it was rocky ... 1200 C is enough to melt rocks and minerals
 

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Dorset where else eh? >>> Thats ENGLAND<<<
It's a gas giant. It can withstand anything. In fact, extremely large gas giants are called failed stars.

Jupiter is often referred to as sols failed little sister >>> a failed Star
as it Outputs more heat that it receives from sol Not quite big enough for Fusion to fully occur But definitely something is heating the core so its outputting more energy than it receives

THINK Arther C Clark 2001 /2010 and the black monolith ( big Star fire lighter ) :)
 
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Good news :)

NASA Selects Instrument Team to Build Next-Gen Planet Hunter

The instrument, named NEID (NN-EXPLORE Exoplanet Investigations with Doppler Spectroscopy) will measure the tiny back-and-forth wobble of a star caused by the gravitational tug of a planet in orbit around it. The wobble tells scientists there is a planet orbiting the star, and the size of the wobble indicates how massive the planet is.

The NEID instrument, to be completed in 2019, will be installed on the 3.5-m WIYN telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.


Even more good news! :D

The SETI Institute has inaugurated a greatly expanded hunt for deliberately produced radio signals that would indicate the presence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Over the course of the next two years, it will scrutinize the vicinities of 20000 so-called red dwarf stars.



And a final strike to finish this amazing combo :D

The most detailed map of a small, rocky ‘super Earth’ to date reveals a planet almost completely covered by lava, with a molten ‘hot’ side and solid ‘cool’ side.

Conditions on the hot side of the planet 55 Cancri e are so extreme that it may have caused the atmosphere to evaporate, with the result that conditions on the two sides of the planet vary widely: temperatures on the hot side can reach 2500°C, while temperatures on the cool side are around 1100°C.


55 Cancri e is a ‘super Earth’: a rocky exoplanet about twice the size and eight times the mass of Earth, and orbits its parent star so closely that a year lasts just 18 hours. 55 Cancri e has been extensively studied since it was discovered in 2011. Based on readings taken at different points in time, it was thought to be a water world, or even made of diamond, but researchers now believe that it is almost completely covered by lava.

 
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Exoplanets, planetesimals, hot-Jupiters, protoplanetary disks and more .. :eek:





Interesting idea: [Laser cloaking device could help us hide from aliens]

Two astronomers at Columbia University in New York suggest humanity could use lasers to conceal the Earth from searches by advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. According to the authors, emitting a continuous 30 MW laser for about 10 hours, once a year, would be enough to eliminate the transit signal, at least in visible light.

More exciting news:

Triple star system was found in 2005 and here's a new one:

Planet with triple-star system found


A Jupiter-sized planet hovers in the sky beside a triple star system, as seen from a hypothetical moon nearby (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

KELT-4Ab, a gas giant planet, similar in size to Jupiter - takes ~ 3 days to make its way around the star KELT-A, which serves as its sun. The other two stars, named KELT-B and C, are much farther away and orbit one another over the course of ~ 30 years. It takes the pair ~ 4000 years to orbit KELT-A. The view from KELT-4Ab would likely be one where its sun, KELT-A, would appear ~ 40 times as big as our sun does to us due to its close proximity. The two other orbiting stars, on the other hand, would appear much dimmer due to their great distance, shining no brighter than our moon.
 
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Stephen Hawking and billionaire team up to find aliens


The planet hunter, MIT astrophysicist Sara Seager, searching for another Earth


superhot alien planet has 'sunscreening' stratosphere

WASP-33b, an exoplanet 4.5 times more massive that Jupiter, has a layer in its atmosphere that absorbs ultraviolet radiation, preventing UV from reaching the surface. Earth has a similar stratospheric UV filter


Exoplanet Kepler-453b is the 10th planet found by NASA's Kepler Mission to have a pair of host stars which indicates that many more could exist but remain hidden.

 
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New videos by NASA 360.

Unfortunately music is so fucking loud and annoying, luckily the full cast is in the description
 
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Astronomers have discovered three planets orbiting a faint red ultracool dwarf star just 40 ly from us. These worlds have sizes and temperatures similar to those of Venus and Earth and are the best targets found so far for the search for life outside the Solar System. They are the first planets ever discovered around such a tiny and dim star.



TRAPPIST-1 is an ultracool dwarf star - it's much cooler and redder than the Sun and barely larger than Jupiter. This star has ~ 0.05% of the Sun's luminosity and a mass of about 8% that of the Sun. It lies in the constellation of Aquarius. Detailed analysis showed that three Earth-sized planets were orbiting TRAPPIST-1.



Two of the planets have orbital periods of ~ 1.5 and 2.4 days respectively, and the third planet has a less well determined period.

With such short orbital periods, the planets are between 20 and 100 times closer to their star than the Earth to the Sun. The structure of this planetary system is much more similar in scale to the system of Jovian moons than to that of the Solar System.

Although they orbit very close to their host dwarf star, the inner two planets only receive 4 and 2 times, respectively, the amount of radiation received by the Earth, because their star is much fainter than the Sun. That puts them closer to the star than the habitable zone for this system, although it's still possible that they possess habitable regions on their surfaces. The third, outer, planet's orbit is not yet well known, but it probably receives less radiation than the Earth does, but maybe still enough to lie within the habitable zone.


 
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