Space
Gas Planet Discovered Deep within Our Galaxy with Spitzer Space Telescope
Catherine Griffin
First Posted: Apr 15, 2015 05:43 AM EDT
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has helped spot one of the most distant planets known to date. Located about 13,000 light-years away, the remote gas planet reveals the true capabilities of Spitzer.
"We don't know if planets are more common in our galaxy's central bulge or the disk of the galaxy, which is why these observations are so important," said Jennifer Yee, one of the researchers, in a news release.
In this latest study, telescopes relied on microlensing events. Microlensing events occur when one star happens to pass in front of another, and its gravity acts as a lens to magnify and brighten the more distant star's light. If the foreground star happens to be orbited by a planet, the planet may cause a blip in the magnification.
"Microlensing experiments are already detecting planets from the solar neighborhood to almost the center of the Milky Way," said Andrew Gould, co-author of the new study. "And so they can, in principle, tell us the relative efficiency of planet formation across the huge expanse of our galaxy."
Out of the approximately 30 planets discovered with microlensing so far, about half cannot be pinned down to a precise location. This is where Spitzer helps out; thanks to its remote Earth-trailing orbit, it circles our sun and can watch the star brighten at a different time than telescopes on Earth. These different brightening times from different vantage points are known as parallax.
In the case of the newly found planet, the duration of the microlensing event was about 150 days.
"We've mainly explored our own solar neighborhood so far," said Sebastiano Calchi Novati, one of the researchers. "Now we can use these single lenses to do statistics on planets as a whole and learn about their distribution in the galaxy."
The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal.
For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
See Now:
NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone
©2024 ScienceWorldReport.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The window to the world of science news.
More on SCIENCEwr
First Posted: Apr 15, 2015 05:43 AM EDT
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has helped spot one of the most distant planets known to date. Located about 13,000 light-years away, the remote gas planet reveals the true capabilities of Spitzer.
"We don't know if planets are more common in our galaxy's central bulge or the disk of the galaxy, which is why these observations are so important," said Jennifer Yee, one of the researchers, in a news release.
In this latest study, telescopes relied on microlensing events. Microlensing events occur when one star happens to pass in front of another, and its gravity acts as a lens to magnify and brighten the more distant star's light. If the foreground star happens to be orbited by a planet, the planet may cause a blip in the magnification.
"Microlensing experiments are already detecting planets from the solar neighborhood to almost the center of the Milky Way," said Andrew Gould, co-author of the new study. "And so they can, in principle, tell us the relative efficiency of planet formation across the huge expanse of our galaxy."
Out of the approximately 30 planets discovered with microlensing so far, about half cannot be pinned down to a precise location. This is where Spitzer helps out; thanks to its remote Earth-trailing orbit, it circles our sun and can watch the star brighten at a different time than telescopes on Earth. These different brightening times from different vantage points are known as parallax.
In the case of the newly found planet, the duration of the microlensing event was about 150 days.
"We've mainly explored our own solar neighborhood so far," said Sebastiano Calchi Novati, one of the researchers. "Now we can use these single lenses to do statistics on planets as a whole and learn about their distribution in the galaxy."
The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal.
For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone