Magnets meteors in outer space: a study reveals elusive giant planets

Astronomers believe that planets like Jupiter protect us from space objects that would otherwise strike the Earth. Now, they are closer to knowing if giant planets are acting as guardians of solar systems elsewhere in the galaxy.

A team led by UCR discovered two planets the size of Jupiter located about 150 light-years from Earth, which could reveal if life is likely on the smaller planets of other solar systems.

"We think that planets like Jupiter have profoundly affected the progress of life on Earth – without them, men might not be here to hold this conversation," said Stephen Kane, lead author of the study. and associate professor of planetary astrophysics. "Understanding how many other stars have planets like Jupiter could be very important to learn more about the livability of planets in these systems."

According to astronomers, astronomers believe that these planets have the ability to act as "slingers", shooting objects like meteors, comets and asteroids out of their tracks before hitting rocky planets.

Many large planets have been found near their stars. However, these are not so useful to know more about the architecture of our own solar system, where the giant planets, including Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, are all further away from the sun. The big planets far from their stars have been hitherto more difficult to find.

A recently accepted study for publication in the Astronomical Journal explains in detail how the Kane team found success in a new approach combining traditional detection methods and the latest technologies.

A popular method of looking for exoplanets – the planets of other solar systems – is to watch the stars to determine if they are vacillating, in which a star is moving towards or away from the Earth. this. The oscillation is probably caused by the gravitational pull exerted by a nearby planet. When a star wobbles, it's a clue that there may be an exoplanet nearby.

When the planet is far from its star, the gravitational attraction is weaker, making the flicker smaller and harder to detect. According to Kane, the other problem with using the sweep detection method is that it takes a lot of time. Earth only takes a year to orbit the sun. Jupiter takes 12, Saturn 30 and Neptune, an astonishing 164 years.

Large exoplanets also take several years to surround their stars, which means that observing a complete orbit could engulf the entire career of an astronomer. To speed up the process, Kane and his team combined the oscillation method with direct imaging. In this way, if the team thought that a planet could cause flickering, it could confirm it on sight.

Obtaining a direct image of a planet at billions of kilometers away is not a simple task. It requires the largest telescope possible, a telescope at least 32 feet long and extremely sensitive. Even at this distance, starlight can overexpose the image, obscuring the target planets.

The team took on this challenge by learning to recognize and eliminate patterns on their star-light imagery. By removing starlight, Kane's team could see what was left.

"Direct imaging has come a long way both in terms of understanding the patterns we found and in terms of the instruments used to create the images, whose resolution is much higher than ever before" said Kane. "You see it every time a new smartphone is available. Camera detectors are constantly improving, which is also true in astronomy."

As part of this project, the team applied the combination of the 20-star vobulation and imaging method. In addition to the two satellites orbited by giant planets that had not yet been discovered, the team also detected a third star previously observed with a giant planet in its system.

In the future, the team will continue to monitor 10 stars where planetary companions could not be excluded. In addition, Kane plans to launch a new project to measure the time required for these exoplanets to rotate to and from their stars, which currently can not be measured.

The Kane team is international and includes members of the Australian Astronomical Observatory, the University of Southern Queensland, the University of New South Wales and Macquarie University. in Australia, as well as the University of Hertfordshire in the UK. They are also scattered throughout the United States at Tucson National Observatory of Optical Astronomy, Connecticut University, Southern Connecticut State University, NASA Ames Research Center, and Stanford University in California. at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, DC

"This discovery is an important piece of the puzzle because it helps us understand the factors that make a planet habitable and determine whether it is common or not," Kane said. "We are quickly converging on the answers to this question that the last 3000 years of recorded history might only wish to have available to them."