visible light exoplanet detection

[pyoko]

Whatever happened to that exoplanet that was detected and imaged in visible light instead of wobbles? It was almost a year ago, and I thought this would mean more such planets would be discovered this way, but have not heard anything since. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="color:#ff9900" class="Apple-style-span">-pyoko</span> <span style="color:#333333" class="Apple-style-span">the</span> <span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span">duck </span></p><p><span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color:#808080;font-style:italic" class="Apple-style-span">It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.</span></span></p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

I don't have the answer to your question yet, but thought I'd update the stats.<br /><br />As of today, 268 extrasolar planets have been discovered.<br /><br />The confirmations are by:<br /><br />255 by radial velocity<br />34 by transit<br />4 by microlensing<br />4 by imaging (I have not yet determined exactly what that term means...<br />I'll report back after more research.)<br />5 by timing.<br /><br />Notice the total is larger than the number of planets.<br />Many have been confirmed by multiple methods, so will show up in more than one category. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[qso1]

The only visible light detected objects I'm aware of turned out to be brown dwarfs. AFAIK, there has been no bonifide planet imaged. Once it does happen, then as you mentioned, more will be imaged when discovered. I'm sure that many of the 260 already detected indirectly, will be the target of imaging as well. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[pyoko]

Hmm ok. I'll try to find the article. I'm sure it said a planet. <br /><br />edit: Dont know if this is anything to do with it:<br />http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/TPF/tpf_technology.cfm<br /><br />But the article still proves illusive. I think I read it in the Australian Astronomer magazine. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="color:#ff9900" class="Apple-style-span">-pyoko</span> <span style="color:#333333" class="Apple-style-span">the</span> <span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span">duck </span></p><p><span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color:#808080;font-style:italic" class="Apple-style-span">It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.</span></span></p> </div>

 

[qso1]

Infrared is probably a better way to image an exo planet simply because those planets closest to their host stars will be visible due to heat reflecting from their surfaces. And yes, there was an article that claimed the first exo-planet had been imaged but when I read it, the planet fit the brown dwarf category to me rather than a planet like Earth, Venus, or Jupiter.<br /><br />I read it here months ago IIRC. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[3488]

Yes, it was a Brown Dwarf, about 45 Jupiter masses IIRC.<br /><br />Also Infrared is a better technique, due to the contrast between parent star & <br />planet will be vastly reduced (provided it is reasonably warm).<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"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".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[bearack]

Please help a lamen here, could you please exlpain IIRC? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><br /><img id="06322a8d-f18d-4ab1-8ea7-150275a4cb53" src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/6/14/06322a8d-f18d-4ab1-8ea7-150275a4cb53.Large.jpg" alt="blog post photo" /></p> </div>

 

[3488]

IIRC = If I Remember Correctly.<br /><br />Also you may see AFAIK = As Far As I Know.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"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".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[pyoko]

With that article was a picture of an artists impression of the planet, partially overlapping it's star. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="color:#ff9900" class="Apple-style-span">-pyoko</span> <span style="color:#333333" class="Apple-style-span">the</span> <span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span">duck </span></p><p><span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color:#808080;font-style:italic" class="Apple-style-span">It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.</span></span></p> </div>

 

[qso1]

3488:<br />Yes, it was a Brown Dwarf, about 45 Jupiter masses IIRC.<br /><br />Me:<br />Thanks for clearing that up. I could not remember where I'd seen it and without any memory to go on, a search for the article became useless. There was one announced back in 98 or 99 of what was thought initially to be an extrasolar planet in the Taurus Molecular Cloud that was thought to have been ejected from its parent star.<br /><br />When I saw that one, and the image. I was not convinced because it was said to be a least 150 billion miles from its parent star and even with Hubbles sensitivity. At those distances, I had a hard time imagining Hubble capturing the reflected light of a planet at least 1,000 light years from Hubble and 150B miles from its parent star.<br /><br />A year later it was announced that the planet was a distant star. I'd always thought to myself, make sure its the real deal and that incident reinforced my thoughts. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

The ability to explore remote worlds in space has been enhanced through a polarization technique that allows the first ever detection of light reflected by extrasolar (exoplanet) planets. The study has been accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters. <br /><br />An international team of astronomers, led by Professor Svetlana Berdyugina of ETH Zurich's Institute of Astronomy, has for the first time ever been able to detect and monitor the visible light that is scattered in the atmosphere of an exoplanet. Employing techniques similar to how Polaroid sunglasses filter away reflected sunlight to reduce glare, the team of scientists were able to extract polarized light to enhance the faint reflected starlight 'glare' from an exoplanet. As a result, the scientists could infer the size of its swollen atmosphere. They also directly traced the orbit of the planet, a feat of visualization not possible using indirect methods. <br /><br />Hot Jupiter <br /><br />The transiting exoplanet under study circles the dwarf star HD189733 in the constellation Vulpecula and lies more than 60 light years from the earth. Known as HD189733b, this exoplanet was discovered two years ago via Doppler spectroscopy. HD189733b is so close to its parent star that its atmosphere expands from the heat. Until now, astronomers have never seen light reflected from an exoplanet, although they have deduced from other observations that HD189733b probably resembles a 'hot Jupiter' -- a planet orbiting extremely closely to its parent star. Unlike Jupiter, however, HD189733b orbits its star in a couple of days rather than the 12 years it takes Jupiter to make one orbit of the sun. <br /><br />Two half-moon phases <br /><br />The international team, consisting of Svetlana Berdyugina, Dominique Fluri (ETH Zurich), Andrei Berdyugin and Vilppu Piirola (Tuorla Observatory, Finland), used the 60cm KVA telescope by remote control. The telescope, which belongs to the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, is located

 

[brellis]

I'm waiting for the Hubble folks to set their sights on Espilon Eridani b. My money's on that planet being the first one directly imaged.<br /><br />I started a thread on the topic a while back <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#ff0000"><em><strong>I'm a recovering optimist - things could be better.</strong></em></font> </p> </div>

 

[brellis]

HST Weekly Timelines<br /><br />I check there for "HD 22049" - Epsilon eri <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#ff0000"><em><strong>I'm a recovering optimist - things could be better.</strong></em></font> </p> </div>