Extrasolar Planet Discovery by Hubble

MeteorWayne · Nov 7, 2008

Hubble Announces A Major Extrasolar Planet Discovery WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a Science Update to report on a significant discovery about planets orbiting other stars at 2:30 p.m. EST, Thursday, Nov. 13, in NASA's James E. Webb auditorium. This unique discovery, made by the Hubble Space Telescope's Advance Camera for Surveys instrument, also will be featured in the Nov. 14 issue of the journal Science. The briefing participants are: -- Ed Weiler, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington -- Sara Seager, associate professor of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. -- Paul Kalas, assistant adjunct professor, Physics and Astronomy Department, University of California at Berkeley. -- Mark Clampin, James Webb Space Telescope Observatory project scientist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. -- Marc Kuchner, exoplanet scientist, Astrophysics Science Division, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. This will be a teleconference, I'll post more details as soon as I get them. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id. I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function </div>

silylene old · Nov 7, 2008

Replying to: <DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Hubble Announces A Major Extrasolar Planet Discovery WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a Science Update to report on a significant discovery about planets orbiting other stars at 2:30 p.m. EST, Thursday, Nov. 13, in NASA's James E. Webb auditorium. This unique discovery, made by the Hubble Space Telescope's Advance Camera for Surveys instrument, also will be featured in the Nov. 14 issue of the journal Science. The briefing participants are: -- Ed Weiler, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington -- Sara Seager, associate professor of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. -- Paul Kalas, assistant adjunct professor, Physics and Astronomy Department, University of California at Berkeley. -- Mark Clampin, James Webb Space Telescope Observatory project scientist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. -- Marc Kuchner, exoplanet scientist, Astrophysics Science Division, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. This will be a teleconference, I'll post more details as soon as I get them. Posted by MeteorWayne</DIV> Cool ! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center">I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function. </div> </div>

Mee_n_Mac · Nov 7, 2008

More on HD 189733b ?  Or something akin to it on other extrasolar planets ?   I note Sara Seagers presence on the panel. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> -----------------------------------------------------Ask not what your Forum Software can do do on you,Ask it to, please for the love of all that's Holy, STOP ! </div>

3488 · Nov 7, 2008

Replying to: <DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>More on HD 189733b ?  Or something akin to it on other extrasolar planets ?   I note Sara Seagers presence on the panel. Posted by Mee_n_Mac</DIV>Or around a really nearby star like Alpha Centauri, Sirius or Procyon??? ACS investigator??? Make's me thinks its around a very 'close' star.Thanks Wayne, I too will try & find out more. Andrew Brown.  <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before". Linda Morabito on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.http://www.launchphotography.com/ http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearthhttp://web.me.com/meridianijournal </div>

nimbus · Nov 8, 2008

Replying to: <DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Or around a really nearby star like Alpha Centauri, Sirius or Procyon??? ACS investigator??? Make's me thinks its around a very 'close' star.Thanks Wayne, I too will try & find out more. Andrew Brown.  Posted by 3488</DIV> It's going to be very very cool if they get that sunflower-shaped star shade up there in front of a good telescope.. Look at all we're finding without it already

OurUniverse · Nov 9, 2008

Im excited that this will be some kind of planet close to our system. A close to earth mass planet maybe. This is cool! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

JonClarke · Nov 9, 2008

And there are people who think Hubble isn't worth repairing...... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars Arthur Clarke </div>

js117 · Nov 9, 2008

I found this on the NASA HUBBLE websit aout the find.This could be old News Credit: NASA/ESA/G. Bacon (STScI) NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has made the first detection ever of an organic molecule in the atmosphere of a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting another star. This breakthrough is an important step in eventually identifying signs of life on a planet outside our solar system. The molecule found by Hubble is methane, which under the right circumstances can play a key role in prebiotic chemistry -- the chemical reactions considered necessary to form life as we know it. This discovery proves that Hubble and upcoming space missions, such as NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, can detect organic molecules on planets around other stars by using spectroscopy, which splits light into its components to reveal the "fingerprints" of various chemicals. "This is a crucial stepping stone to eventually characterizing prebiotic molecules on planets where life could exist," said Mark Swain of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., who led the team that made the discovery. Swain is lead author of a paper appearing in the March 20 issue of Nature. The discovery comes after extensive observations made in May 2007 with Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS). It also confirms the existence of water molecules in the planet's atmosphere, a discovery made originally by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in 2007. "With this observation there is no question whether there is water or not - water is present," said Swain. The planet now known to have methane and water is located 63 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula. Called HD 189733b, the planet is so massive and so hot it is considered an unlikely host for life. HD 189733b, dubbed a "hot Jupiter," is so close to its parent star it takes just over two days to complete an orbit. These objects are the size of Jupiter but orbit closer to their stars than the tiny innermost planet Mercury in our solar system. HD 189733b's atmosphere swelters at 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit, about the same temperature as the melting point of silver. Though the star-hugger planet is too hot for life as we know it, "this observation is proof that spectroscopy can eventually be done on a cooler and potentially habitable Earth-sized planet orbiting a dimmer red dwarf-type star," Swain said. The ultimate goal of studies like these is to identify prebiotic molecules in the atmospheres of planets in the "habitable zones" around other stars, where temperatures are right for water to remain liquid rather than freeze or evaporate away. The observations were made as the planet HD 189733b passed in front of its parent star in what astronomers call a transit. As the light from the star passed briefly through the atmosphere along the edge of the planet, the gases in the atmosphere imprinted their unique signatures on the starlight from the star HD 189733. The astronomers were surprised to find that the planet has more methane than predicted by conventional models for "hot Jupiters." "This indicates we don't really understand exoplanet atmospheres yet," said Swain. "These measurements are an important step to our ultimate goal of determining the conditions, such as temperature, pressure, winds, clouds, etc., and the chemistry on planets where life could exist. Infrared spectroscopy is really the key to these studies because it is best matched to detecting molecules," said Swain. Swain's co-authors on the paper include Gautam Vasisht of JPL and Giovanna Tinetti of University College, London. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) and is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts Hubble science operations. The institute is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., Washington, D.C. JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope for NASA. Scheduled for launch in 2013, JWST will probe even deeper into the universe than Hubble can now. JWST is an international collaboration between NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). GSFC is managing the development effort. The prime contractor is Northrop Grumman Space Technologies. STScI will operate JWST after launch.

MeteorWayne · Nov 10, 2008

{Mod Bump} <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id. I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function </div>

weeman · Nov 11, 2008

I am looking forward to any further details! I'm a visual kind of guy. <img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-cool.gif" border="0" alt="Cool" title="Cool" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Techies: We do it in the dark. "Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity." -Albert Einstein </div>

lildreamer · Nov 13, 2008

Replying to: <DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>I am looking forward to any further details! I'm a visual kind of guy. Posted by weeman</DIV>press showing now .... http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html?param=public  <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

Philotas · Nov 13, 2008

Replying to: <DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>press showing now ....http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html?param=public Posted by lildreamer</DIV> My goodness! This is awesome!<img src="http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2008/39/images/a/formats/web.jpg" alt="" />  I must admit I hadn't seen the previous Hubble images of Formalhaut until now; way to go! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

PistolPete · Nov 13, 2008

IIRC, I remember reading several months ago that some scientists were thinking that systems with "hot Jupiters," i.e. gas giants with very close and/or very eccentric orbits that take it close to the star, might be the norm.  However, now that we have this new system of finding planets, it will be interesting to see which is more common: "hot Jupiter" type systems, or systems more like our own. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> So, again we are defeated. This victory belongs to the farmers, not us.-Kambei Shimada from the movie Seven Samurai </div>

MeteorWayne · Nov 13, 2008

RELEASE : 08-289 Hubble Directly Observes a Planet Orbiting Another Star WASHINGTON -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken the first visible-light snapshot of a planet circling another star. Estimated to be no more than three times Jupiter's mass, the planet, called Fomalhaut b, orbits the bright southern star Fomalhaut, located 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis, or the "Southern Fish." Fomalhaut has been a candidate for planet hunting ever since an excess of dust was discovered around the star in the early 1980s by NASA's Infrared Astronomy Satellite, IRAS. In 2004, the coronagraph in the High Resolution Camera on Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys produced the first-ever resolved visible-light image of the region around Fomalhaut. It clearly showed a ring of protoplanetary debris approximately 21.5 billion miles across and having a sharp inner edge. This large debris disk is similar to the Kuiper Belt, which encircles the solar system and contains a range of icy bodies from dust grains to objects the size of dwarf planets, such as Pluto. Hubble astronomer Paul Kalas, of the University of California at Berkeley, and team members proposed in 2005 that the ring was being gravitationally modified by a planet lying between the star and the ring's inner edge. Circumstantial evidence came from Hubble's confirmation that the ring is offset from the center of the star. The sharp inner edge of the ring is also consistent with the presence of a planet that gravitationally "shepherds" ring particles. Independent researchers have subsequently reached similar conclusions. Now, Hubble has actually photographed a point source of light lying 1.8 billion miles inside the ring's inner edge. The results are being reported in the November 14 issue of Science magazine. "Our Hubble observations were incredibly demanding. Fomalhaut b is 1 billion times fainter than the star. We began this program in 2001, and our persistence finally paid off," Kalas says. "Fomalhaut is the gift that keeps on giving. Following the unexpected discovery of its dust ring, we have now found an exoplanet at a location suggested by analysis of the dust ring's shape. The lesson for exoplanet hunters is 'follow the dust,'" said team member Mark Clampin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Observations taken 21 months apart by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys' coronagraph show that the object is moving along a path around the star, and is therefore gravitationally bound to it. The planet is 10.7 billion miles from the star, or about 10 times the distance of the planet Saturn from our sun. The planet is brighter than expected for an object of three Jupiter masses. One possibility is that it has a Saturn-like ring of ice and dust reflecting starlight. The ring might eventually coalesce to form moons. The ring's estimated size is comparable to the region around Jupiter and its four largest orbiting satellites. Kalas and his team first used Hubble to photograph Fomalhaut in 2004, and made the unexpected discovery of its debris disk, which scatters Fomalhaut's starlight. At the time they noted a few bright sources in the image as planet candidates. A follow-up image in 2006 showed that one of the objects is moving through space with Fomalhaut but changed position relative to the ring since the 2004 exposure. The amount of displacement between the two exposures corresponds to an 872-year-long orbit as calculated from Kepler's laws of planetary motion. Future observations will attempt to see the planet in infrared light and will look for evidence of water vapor clouds in the atmosphere. This would yield clues to the evolution of a comparatively newborn 100-million-year-old planet. Astrometric measurements of the planet's orbit will provide enough precision to yield an accurate mass. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id. I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function </div>

MeteorWayne · Nov 13, 2008

Formalhaut is an old friend, one of the brighter stars in the summer southern sky. It's very near to the radiant of the Pisces Austrind (PAU) meteor shower, very hard to observe from the northern hemisphere. (Only one observed in over a dozen hours in the last 2 years). I will now have a different perspective when gazing upon this star

MW <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id. I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function </div>

PistolPete · Nov 13, 2008

Replying to: <DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Or around a really nearby star like Alpha Centauri, Sirius or Procyon??? ACS investigator??? Make's me thinks its around a very 'close' star.Thanks Wayne, I too will try & find out more. Andrew Brown.  Posted by 3488</DIV>SolStation.com has a good summary of some of the findings from the 2005 Spitzer Conference.  Using the Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists were able to discern a dust belt around Epsilon Eridani at approximately the same distance as our own asteroid belt.  The discovery of this belt indicates that the previously discovered planet Epsilon Eridani b has a much less eccentric orbit than previously thought.  A more circular orbit for planet b leads to the possibility of Earth-like planets in the habitable zone around Epsilon Eridani.  Furthermore, another dust belt as well as the star's Kuiper belt was resolved in the study.  The two belts seem to indicate the presence of two more planets that "shepherd" the belts.  All in all, the new picture of the Epsilon Eridani system seems to indicate a system very much like our own.I definitely think that Epsilon Eridani should be the next target for the Hubble and Keck Observatories.http://www.solstation.com/stars/eps-erid.htm http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn15050 http://jp.arxiv.org/abs/0810.4564  <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> So, again we are defeated. This victory belongs to the farmers, not us.-Kambei Shimada from the movie Seven Samurai </div>

robnissen · Nov 13, 2008

This is awesome.  But I don't think the three planet system announced today that was imaged in the infrared is any less awesome.  To paraphrase, this is one good day for Nasa, one great day for mankind.

doubletruncation · Nov 13, 2008

This is really exciting! It means we can start learning about outer planetary systems to complement what we've learned over the last decade about the inner systems. For those of you interested in some more technical info, there are two papers on Fomalhaut b that just came out  http://arxiv.org/abs/0811.1985 and http://arxiv.org/abs/0811.1994 . The latter is the discovery paper, while the former presents a model of the Fomalhaut debris disk which they use to constrain the mass of Fom. b to < 3 jupiter masses. That gravitational constraint on the planet's mass is quite interesting because usually these direct imaging detections try to estimate the mass from the measured luminosity of the object using theoretical planetary structure/evolution models that frankly are completed untested (and so you shouldn't believe them whatsoever). This time we can really be sure that the thing is definitely a planet and not a brown dwarf. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

doubletruncation · Nov 13, 2008

Replying to: <DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>IIRC, I remember reading several months ago that some scientists were thinking that systems with "hot Jupiters," i.e. gas giants with very close and/or very eccentric orbits that take it close to the star, might be the norm.  However, now that we have this new system of finding planets, it will be interesting to see which is more common: "hot Jupiter" type systems, or systems more like our own. Posted by PistolPete</DIV>We know that a little less than 1% of solar type stars have hot Jupiters (semi-major axes less than 0.1 AU). The frequency depends quite strongly on metallicity, so as many as 2-3% of stars with more heavy elements than the Sun may have hot Jupiters, while very few stars with less heavy elements have hot Jupiters. So hot Jupiters aren't exactly the norm, but they aren't tremendously rare either. Most of the planets found to date are not hot Jupiters, the occurance frequency for planets actually increases with orbital period. So planets with longer orbital periods are more common (out to ~20 AU at least, we really don't know anything about the planet population beyond that, which is way the discoveries announced today are quite interesting). The radial velocity surveys find that something like 20% of all solar-like stars have a ~Jupiter-sized planet within 20 AU, while there are indications that smaller planets are more common. For more information have a look at: http://arxiv.org/abs/0803.3357 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

3488 · Nov 14, 2008

This is just absolutely incredible, jaw dropping stuff.I have not really had the time to post much on the forums in the last couple of days (though I have lurked at times to fulfil my moderator duties), this is just incredible.Looks like the planet orbits Fomalhaut in the same direction that our planets orbit our sun (counterclockwise as viewed from the north).Aprrox three Jupiter masses or approx 954 Earth masses, far too low to be a brown dwarf, though this planet may mimic one with the heat from it's creation & contraction.This is absolutely profound, one of the real benchmarks in science generally that we have now SEEN a real exoplanet. I wonder if a spectrum is obtainable, or is it too faint? Like the idea that the planet is brighter than expected as may have a gient ring system like Saturn's. This planet could already have a family of moons, some large, although that is just speculation on my part.Like Wayne, Fomalhaut to me will never, ever be the same again. Fomalhaut is not well placed for viewing here (Wayne is better positioned, Jon Clarke especially so), as my latitude at 51 North, means that Fomalhaut never gets very high, only about 10 degrees at culmination, but still, on clear Summer & Autumn nights, Fomalhaut shines brightly.Some how I think in the fairly near future, we will directly image others arounf Fomalhaut.Just a thought, will the HST post STS 125, try the same around Vega, Achernar, Sirius, Altair, Alpha Centauri, etc other young stars & close ones (AC is not at all young, in fact older than our Sun, but is the closest steller system to our solar system)?A little summary.Fomalhaut.Mass. 2.3 Solar masses or 775,776 Earth masses.Diameter: 1.85 Sun's or 2.57 millon KM / 1.6 million miles.Average Surface Temp: 8,250 C.Luminosity: Approx 16 times that of our Sun.Fomalhaut b (Planet).Size: Unknown.Mass: Approx 3 Jupiters or 954 Earths.Current distance from Fomalhaut: 119 Astronomical Units or 2.9 Billion KM / 1.8 Billion Miles.Orbital Period: 872 Years.Orbital Direction: Prograde i.e counterclockwise / west to east as viewed from the north.SolStation entry.Also see this from qzzq concerning HR8799.This is like waiting for a bus. You wait ages for one then four turn up @ once. <img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-laughing.gif" border="0" alt="Laughing" title="Laughing" />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before". Linda Morabito on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.http://www.launchphotography.com/ http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearthhttp://web.me.com/meridianijournal </div>

arkady · Nov 14, 2008

<img src="http://images.berlingske.dk/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Avis=BM&Dato=20081114&Kategori=ABMVIDEN&Lopenr=81114084&Ref=AR&MaxW=620&border=0" alt="Den lille prik, der anes i den mindste og meget lille firkant i højre nedre halvdel af billedet, er en planet 25 lysår borte. Det er dermed en historisk optagelse, for aldrig før er det lykkedes at fange en planet uden for solsystemet direkte på film. Foto: NASA/Hubble" width="620" height="355" />  Foto: NASA/Hubble Foto: Scanpix <div class="br height-20"> </div> <div class="br height-10"> </div> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> "The choice is the Universe, or nothing ... " - H.G Wells </div>

MeteorWayne · Nov 14, 2008

Replying to: <DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>A little summary.Fomalhaut.Posted by 3488</DIV> And one other item of great importance to meteor observers

Visual magnitude +1.17METEOR Wayne

<div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id. I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function </div>

Mee_n_Mac · Nov 14, 2008

"b" would appear to be one big KBO.  <img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-wink.gif" border="0" alt="Wink" title="Wink" />  What does this imply for planetary formation ?  Or is Formalhauts accretion disc just that different from what the Suns was thought to be ?  Do we have a new #1 target for TPF ?  I just like that we have something other than another hot Jupiter. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> -----------------------------------------------------Ask not what your Forum Software can do do on you,Ask it to, please for the love of all that's Holy, STOP ! </div>

MeteorWayne · Nov 14, 2008

nightskybuff posted in a closed thread in AtA:considering the first-ever direct photos of extrasolar planets that were announced a day or two ago: would it be possible to get a much closer look at the planet orbiting fomalhaut by a very long exposure using the hubble telescope - as it did to capture the famous "ultra deep field" image? Here was my reply:Welcome to Space.com! Since the Hubble is where the images came from, I would assume that when time is available they will continue observations. Hubble time is precious, so it will be distrubuted as best as can be done. I don't think there will be much more to be learned by longer exposures, but you never know!This is a duplicate of a thread that has been going for a few days in the Space Science and Astronomy Forum. As such, I am going to close this thread and redirect you here. I have copied your post over so it doesn't get lost.  <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id. I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function </div>

nightskybuff · Nov 14, 2008

MeteorWayne thx for the reply, that makes sense, the hubble telescope time is extremely precious. I didn't state my question clearly, what I meant was whether it is even feasible to resolve the disc of that planet by a very long hubble exposure length. Or is it just too far away? Just wondering if we'd ever expect to see images of it or similar extrasolars as we see our own solar system planets.

Extrasolar Planet Discovery by Hubble

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