* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Novel technique water on exoplanets
Dyson sphere wikipedia , lookup
Perseus (constellation) wikipedia , lookup
Cygnus (constellation) wikipedia , lookup
Circumstellar habitable zone wikipedia , lookup
Astrobiology wikipedia , lookup
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems wikipedia , lookup
Rare Earth hypothesis wikipedia , lookup
Discovery of Neptune wikipedia , lookup
Star of Bethlehem wikipedia , lookup
International Ultraviolet Explorer wikipedia , lookup
Spitzer Space Telescope wikipedia , lookup
Planet Nine wikipedia , lookup
IAU definition of planet wikipedia , lookup
Extraterrestrial atmosphere wikipedia , lookup
Planets beyond Neptune wikipedia , lookup
Astronomical naming conventions wikipedia , lookup
Definition of planet wikipedia , lookup
Exoplanetology wikipedia , lookup
Aquarius (constellation) wikipedia , lookup
Corvus (constellation) wikipedia , lookup
Extraterrestrial life wikipedia , lookup
Observational astronomy wikipedia , lookup
Deccan Herald(09-07-2013) Novel technique boosts hunt for water on exoplanets LONDON, AGENCIES: Astronomers have detected the tell-talespectral fingerprintof water molecules in the atmosphere of a planet in orbit around another star. The discovery using ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), endorsesa new techniquethat will let astronomersefficiently search for ,water on hundreds of worlds without the need for space-basedtelescopes. Since the early 1990s scientists have found almost 1000 planets in orbit around other stars.These so-calledexoplanets are mostly much larger than the Earth and many are much closer to their stars than we are to the Sun, leadingthem to be d e s c r i i as 'hot Jupiters'. The team studied the exoplanet HD 189733b, a world that orbits its star every 2.2 I I days and is heated to aternperature of over1500 degrees Celsius. Astronomers usually find exoplanets by measuring the gravitational influence of the planet on the star, which acts to pull the star around in avery small orbit, at velocitiesof a few kilometres per hour. This movement causes a small shift in the lines of the stellar spectrum (known as the Doppler shift), which move back and forthwith the wobble of the star. The Netherlanuden Univw-ledteam fipped the technique on its head by measuringthe gravitationalinfluence of the star on the planet, which is much larger, hurling the planet around its orbit at some 400,000 km per hour. They measured this by tracing the Doppler shift of the water lines in the emplanet's spectrum as it orbited the star. Despite the much larger velocity of the planet, it is nearly a thousand times fainter than the $w,whichmakesdetecting it verv difficult. The team were able k~ detect the spectral line of water in the exoplanet atmosphere by using the CRyogenic high-resolutionInfraRed Echelle Spectrograph (CRIRES) instrument mounted0ntheW.T.