Hubble discovers distant exoplanet's star
Posted: Fri, Aug 11, 2006, 8:37 AM ET (1237 GMT)
A distant extrasolar planet discovered three years ago has now been matched up with its parent star, astronomers reported this week. the planet was discovered in 2003 through a technique called microlensing, where the gravity of a foreground star magnifies the light of a background star when the foreground star passes directly between the background star and the Earth. That magnification turned up the existence of a small companion to the background star believed to be a planet orbiting that star. The identity of the background star could not be determined, though, until the Hubble Space Telescope observed the region and was able to distinguish the star from the foreground microlensing star. the star, called OGLE-2003-BLG-235L/MOA-2003-BLG-53L, is a red dwarf with 63 percent of the mass of the Sun and is approximately 19,000 light-years away. Based on that data, astronomers determined that the exoplanet's mass is about 2.6 times that of Jupiter.
A distant extrasolar planet discovered three years ago has now been matched up with its parent star, astronomers reported this week. the planet was discovered in 2003 through a technique called microlensing, where the gravity of a foreground star magnifies the light of a background star when the foreground star passes directly between the background star and the Earth. That magnification turned up the existence of a small companion to the background star believed to be a planet orbiting that star. The identity of the background star could not be determined, though, until the Hubble Space Telescope observed the region and was able to distinguish the star from the foreground microlensing star. the star, called OGLE-2003-BLG-235L/MOA-2003-BLG-53L, is a red dwarf with 63 percent of the mass of the Sun and is approximately 19,000 light-years away. Based on that data, astronomers determined that the exoplanet's mass is about 2.6 times that of Jupiter.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
Apex becomes billion-dollar company with $200 million Series D round
Posted: Sun, Sep 14 4:09 AM ET (0809 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Wednesday, September 17
Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites scheduled for Wednesday morning
KEYT-TV Santa Barbara, CA — 1:34 am ET (0534 GMT) Colorado Springs springs into action amid loss of Space Command
Washington Times — 1:34 am ET (0534 GMT) SpaceX rocket-launching license survives NEPA challenge
POLITICO — 1:30 am ET (0530 GMT) SpaceX Eyes First Starship Version 3 Launch In ’25 Or ’26
Aviation Week — 1:29 am ET (0529 GMT) Judge dismisses suit challenging SpaceX's Starship approval
Houston Chronicle — 1:28 am ET (0528 GMT) |
