Author Topic: Astronomy & Planetary Science Thread  (Read 439175 times)

Offline missinglink

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Re: Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #40 on: 05/11/2017 08:34 pm »
Not a "trick question", just wanted to get an idea how NSF Forum members expect that the relevant organizations -- and the public, which funds them -- will react to detection of life on exoplanets.

Thanks for answers received thus far.
« Last Edit: 05/11/2017 08:36 pm by missinglink »

Offline dror

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Re: Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #41 on: 05/11/2017 09:14 pm »
My whole interest in space derives from the hope to see that picture.
Sadly, I don't think the reaction will be as immediate or effective as you have suggested. I do hope, though, that it will encourage more reasonable discussions, put some sense in some people who needs it, and allow for a general increase in funding for research.
We must remember, though, that while an exoplanet may save the human race, it will not save the humans on this planet, and won't save this planet from them.
Space is hard immensely complex and high risk !

Offline Star One

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Re: Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #42 on: 05/11/2017 09:19 pm »
NASA Study Finds Unexpectedly Primitive Atmosphere Around ‘Warm Neptune’

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A study combining observations from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes reveals that the distant planet HAT-P-26b has a primitive atmosphere composed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. Located about 437 light years away, HAT-P-26b orbits a star roughly twice as old as the sun.

The analysis is one of the most detailed studies to date of a “warm Neptune,” or a planet that is Neptune-sized and close to its star. The researchers determined that HAT-P-26b’s atmosphere is relatively clear of clouds and has a strong water signature, although the planet is not a water world. This is the best measurement of water to date on an exoplanet of this size.

The discovery of an atmosphere with this composition on this exoplanet has implications for how scientists think about the birth and development of planetary systems. Compared to Neptune and Uranus, the planets in our solar system with about the same mass, HAT-P-26b likely formed either closer to its host star or later in the development of its planetary system, or both.


https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/nasa-study-finds-unexpectedly-primitive-atmosphere-around-warm-neptune

Offline missinglink

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Re: Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #43 on: 05/12/2017 02:54 pm »
We must remember, though, that while an exoplanet may save the human race, it will not save the humans on this planet, and won't save this planet from them.
True, true...

Life on exoplanets may be detected sooner than we think, if this proposal comes to fruition: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2017_Phase_I_Phase_II/Solar_Gravity_Lens_Mission/

Just imagine, an habitable planet that doesn't need to be terraformed ... because it's already teeming with lush plant life. Send seed ships with human eggs and sperm, make of it a Second Earth. Ethical to do this to another biosphere? I guess not. Anyway, cost is prohibitive and First Earth gets no return on investment after bankrupting itself to stage the mission. So, probably never happen.

Offline gospacex

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Re: Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #44 on: 05/12/2017 05:50 pm »
We must remember, though, that while an exoplanet may save the human race, it will not save the humans on this planet, and won't save this planet from them.
True, true...

Life on exoplanets may be detected sooner than we think, if this proposal comes to fruition: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2017_Phase_I_Phase_II/Solar_Gravity_Lens_Mission/

Travel to 550 AU to be able to observe a single target? Because steering this telescope would be... difficult, to say the least.

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Just imagine, an habitable planet that doesn't need to be terraformed ... because it's already teeming with lush plant life. Send seed ships with human eggs and sperm, make of it a Second Earth. Ethical to do this to another biosphere? I guess not.

How about founding "bacteria have rights!" movement? It's sickening to think what massacres some people perpetrate daily, using only toothbrushes!
« Last Edit: 05/12/2017 05:50 pm by gospacex »

Offline Oli

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Re: Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #45 on: 05/14/2017 03:42 pm »
We must remember, though, that while an exoplanet may save the human race, it will not save the humans on this planet, and won't save this planet from them.
True, true...

Life on exoplanets may be detected sooner than we think, if this proposal comes to fruition: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2017_Phase_I_Phase_II/Solar_Gravity_Lens_Mission/

Travel to 550 AU to be able to observe a single target? Because steering this telescope would be... difficult, to say the least.

If we find a planet with the right atmosphere (i.e. Earth-like), such a mission could certainly be worth it. I'm not aware of any other method that could deliver a 1000x1000px image of an exoplanet other than truly gigantic space telescopes.

Offline TakeOff

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Re: Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #46 on: 05/14/2017 06:45 pm »
Just imagine, an habitable planet that doesn't need to be terraformed ... because it's already teeming with lush plant life. Send seed ships with human eggs and sperm, make of it a Second Earth. Ethical to do this to another biosphere? I guess not. Anyway, cost is prohibitive and First Earth gets no return on investment after bankrupting itself to stage the mission. So, probably never happen.

That would be unlikely. Even here on Earth we've had about today's oxygen level only 1/10 of the planet's history. And we might've problems with the microbiomes available before we evolved here. I think we are extremely tightly integrated with Earth as it is now and will have to construct our own environment in other places.

Offline TakeOff

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Re: Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #47 on: 05/14/2017 06:56 pm »
Life on exoplanets may be detected sooner than we think, if this proposal comes to fruition: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2017_Phase_I_Phase_II/Solar_Gravity_Lens_Mission/

Travel to 550 AU to be able to observe a single target? Because steering this telescope would be... difficult, to say the least.
The LISA space laser interferometer is expected to perform an even greater miracle of precision flying. Solar gravity lensing is one of the "resources" that could be taken advantage of from early almost-interstellar flight. Other opportunities might be huge baseline parallax distance measurements and maybe radio interferometry, besides flying by distant objects and studying the interstellar medium. I think that a single object like an interesting exoplanet or the SMBH could be well worth a dedicated observatory.

Offline hop

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Re: Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #48 on: 05/14/2017 07:22 pm »
The LISA space laser interferometer is expected to perform an even greater miracle of precision flying.
Precision distance measurement between active spacecraft is not equivalent to precision pointing, so it's a *different* miracle rather than a greater one. But of all the miracles required to make gravitational focus telescope work, pointing probably isn't the biggest.

If we find a planet with the right atmosphere (i.e. Earth-like), such a mission could certainly be worth it. I'm not aware of any other method that could deliver a 1000x1000px image of an exoplanet other than truly gigantic space telescopes.
It's not clear a gravitational focus telescope can actually do this in practice either. See https://arxiv.org/abs/1604.06351

There is already a thread about for the gravitational focus telescope concept:  http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=27490.0

Offline CuddlyRocket

Re: Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #49 on: 05/16/2017 08:30 pm »
K2-106, a system containing a metal rich planet and a planet of lower density (arXiv)

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The two planets have similar masses, though very different densities. For K2-106b we derive Mp = 7.69 ± 0.82 M⊕, Rp = 1.52 ± 0.16 R⊕, and a high density of 12.0 +4.8 −3.2 g cm−3. For K2-106c, we find 6.79 ± 2.29 M⊕, Rp = 2.59 ± 0.27 R⊕ and a relatively low density of 2.4 +1.6 −1.1 g cm−3.

The 'Fulton Gap' has been proposed to be used to distinguish between 'super-Earths' and 'sub-Neptunes' - with the former having a radius of 1-1.75 R⊕ and the latter one of 1.75–3.5 R⊕. On that definition, this is an interesting system where the super-Earth is more massive than the sub-Neptune!

Offline Star One

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Re: Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #50 on: 05/16/2017 10:10 pm »
New 'styrofoam' planet provides tools in search for habitable planets

https://m.phys.org/news/2017-05-styrofoam-planet-tools-habitable-planets.html

Offline Star One

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Re: Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #51 on: 05/25/2017 07:15 pm »
Newly Found Exoplanet May Have Ring System Dwarfing Saturn’s

If confirmed, the  world’s rings would be some 200 times wider than Saturn’s and could reveal clues to our solar system’s early history

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/newly-found-exoplanet-may-have-ring-system-dwarfing-saturn-rsquo-s/

Offline Star One

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Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #52 on: 05/30/2017 11:28 am »
Astronomers discover 'super-Earth' planet orbiting nearby star

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Abstract
We report the discovery of a super-Earth orbiting at the inner edge of the habitable zone of the star GJ 625 based on the analysis of the radial-velocity (RV) time series from the HARPS-N spectrograph, consisting in 151 HARPS-N measurements taken over 3.5 yr. GJ 625 b is a planet with a minimum mass M sin i of 2.82 ± 0.51 M⊕ with an orbital period of 14.628 ± 0.013 days at a distance of 0.078 AU of its parent star. The host star is the quiet M2 V star GJ 625, located at 6.5 pc from the Sun. We find the presence of a second radial velocity signal in the range 74-85 days that we relate to stellar rotation after analysing the time series of Ca II H&K and Hα spectroscopic indicators, the variations of the FWHM of the CCF and and the APT2 photometric light curves. We find no evidence linking the short period radial velocity signal to any activity proxy.

https://m.phys.org/news/2017-05-astronomers-super-earth-planet-orbiting-nearby.html
« Last Edit: 05/30/2017 11:33 am by Star One »

Offline hop

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Re: Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #53 on: 05/30/2017 09:57 pm »
More fuel for the M-dwarf tidal locking debate:

On the Spin States of Habitable Zone Exoplanets Around M Dwarfs:The Effect of a Near-Resonant Companion Alec M. Vinson, Brad M.S. Hansen

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One longstanding problem for the potential habitability of planets within M dwarf systems is their likelihood to be tidally locked in a synchronously rotating spin state. This problem thus far has largely been addressed only by considering two objects: the star and the planet itself. However, many systems have been found to harbor multiple planets, with some in or very near to mean-motion resonances. The presence of a planetary companion near a mean-motion resonance can induce oscillatory variations in the mean-motion of the planet, which we demonstrate can have significant effects on the spin-state of an otherwise synchronously rotating planet. In particular, we find that a planetary companion near a mean-motion resonance can excite the spin states of planets in the habitable zone of small, cool stars, pushing otherwise synchronously rotating planets into higher amplitude librations of the spin state, or even complete circulation resulting in effective stellar days with full surface coverage on the order of years or decades. This increase in illuminated area can have potentially dramatic influences on climate, and thus on habitability. We also find that the resultant spin state can be very sensitive to initial conditions due to the chaotic nature of the spin state at early times within certain regimes. We apply our model to two hypothetical planetary systems inspired by the K00255 and TRAPPIST-1 systems, which both have Earth-sized planets in mean-motion resonances orbiting cool stars.

Offline CuddlyRocket

Re: Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #54 on: 05/31/2017 12:30 am »
Astronomers discover 'super-Earth' planet orbiting nearby star

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Abstract
We report the discovery of a super-Earth ... with a minimum mass M sin i of 2.82 ± 0.51 M⊕ ...

https://m.phys.org/news/2017-05-astronomers-super-earth-planet-orbiting-nearby.html

The authors have classified this as a super-Earth on the basis that its mass is between that of Earth and Neptune. I get the impression that most astronomers in the field would consider that definition to be overly-broad, with objects at the upper end of that mass range being referred to as mini-Neptunes instead. The authors do note that the term super-Earth "is also used by astronomers to describe planets bigger than Earth but smaller than the so-called "mini-Neptunes" (with a radius between two to four Earth-radii)."

Is there a confusion between definitions of super-Earths/mini-Neptunes based on mass and those based on the radius? Do astronomers using radial velocity techniques, which gives the mass, differ from their colleagues using transit techniques, which gives the radius?

If this object has the same average density as the Earth, its radius (x sin i) would be 1.41 times that of Earth, which is below the super-Earth/mini-Neptune boundary at 1.75 Earth radii based on the so-called 'Fulton Gap'. However, this is above the boundary based on the transition in the mass-radius relation identified by Chen and Kipping. A borderline case!

Offline Star One

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Re: Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #55 on: 06/02/2017 07:14 pm »
Citizen scientists uncover a cold new world near sun

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A new citizen-science tool released earlier this year to help astronomers pinpoint new worlds lurking in the outer reaches of our solar system has already led to a discovery: a brown dwarf a little more than 100 light years away from the Sun. Just six days after the launch of the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 website in February, four different users alerted the science team to the curious object, whose presence has since been confirmed via an infrared telescope. Details were recently published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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"It's possible that there is a cold world closer than what we believe to be the closest star to the Sun," Faherty said. "Given enough time, I think our volunteers are going help to complete the map of our solar neighborhood."

https://phys.org/news/2017-06-citizen-scientists-uncover-cold-world.amp

Offline Star One

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Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #56 on: 06/05/2017 04:16 pm »
Meet KELT-9b, the Hottest Exoplanet Ever Discovered

The exoplanet’s host star blasts it with so much radiation that it will someday evaporate.

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KELT-9b may just be the weirdest exoplanet astronomer Scott Gaudi has ever found. Gaudi, a researcher at The Ohio State University in Columbus, is the lead author of a paper published today in Nature describing the newly discovered hot, gassy exoplanet that is 3 times the size of Jupiter and located 650 light-years away from Earth.

The newly found exoplanet is tidally locked to its host star, meaning one side eternally faces a blast of radiant heat, Gaudi said. The 4300°C temperature of KELT-9b’s “dayside” is only about 1000°C cooler than the surface of our Sun.

If all of KELT-9b were this hot rather than just the dayside, it could be a star. But it still falls short of that classification because it doesn’t heat itself by means of hydrogen fusion. Instead, its heat comes from the intense radiation from its nearby host star, KELT-9.

https://eos.org/articles/meet-kelt-9b-the-hottest-exoplanet-ever-discovered

Weirdly it's in a polar orbit around its star.
« Last Edit: 06/05/2017 04:19 pm by Star One »

Offline Star One

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Re: Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #57 on: 06/08/2017 07:19 pm »
Relevant to any exoplanets in orbit around them.

Ultraviolet Insights into Red Dwarf Flares

https://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=37914

Offline Star One

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Re: Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #58 on: 06/09/2017 04:51 pm »
 Planet Formation around TRAPPIST-1

https://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=37917

Offline CuddlyRocket

Re: Exoplanet Thread
« Reply #59 on: 06/13/2017 02:44 am »
Two new massive planets detected around the star HD 27894 (Phys.org article).
Three planets around HD 27894 (arXiv paper).

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(Abstract)
Aims. Our new program with HARPS aims to detect mean motion resonant planetary systems around stars which were previously reported to have a single bona fide planet, often based only on sparse radial velocity data.
Methods. Archival and new HARPS radial velocities for the K2V star HD 27894 were combined and fitted with a three-planet self-consistent dynamical model. The best-fit orbit was tested for long-term stability.
Results. We find clear evidence that HD 27894 is hosting at least three massive planets. In addition to the already known Jovian planet with a period Pb ≈ 18 days we discover a Saturn-mass planet with Pc ≈ 36 days, likely in a 2:1 mean motion resonance with the first planet, and a cold massive planet (≈ 5.3 MJup) with a period Pd ≈ 5170 days on a moderately eccentric orbit (ed = 0.39).
Conclusions. HD 27894 is hosting a massive, eccentric giant planet orbiting around a tightly packed inner pair of massive planets likely involved in an asymmetric 2:1 mean motion resonance. HD 27894 may be an important milestone for probing planetary formation and evolution scenarios.

 

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