{"id":14844,"date":"2015-01-17T01:01:21","date_gmt":"2015-01-17T11:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=14844"},"modified":"2015-01-16T19:45:18","modified_gmt":"2015-01-17T05:45:18","slug":"14844","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=14844","title":{"rendered":"Three Almost Earth-Size Planets Found Orbiting Nearby Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

W. M. Keck Observatory press release<\/a>…<\/p>\n

A team of scientists recently discovered a system of three planets, each just larger than Earth, orbiting a nearby star called EPIC 201367065. The three planets are 1.5-2 times the size of Earth. The outermost planet orbits on the edge of the so-called \u201chabitable zone,\u201d where the temperature may be just right for liquid water, believed necessary to support life, on the planet\u2019s surface. The paper, \u201cA Nearby M Star with Three Transiting Super-Earths Discovered by K2,\u201d was submitted to the Astrophysical Journal today and is available here.<\/p>\n

\"Exoplanet<\/a>
This whimsical cartoon shows the three newly discovered extrasolar planets (right) casting shadows on their host star that can been seen as eclipses, or transits, at Earth (left). Credit: K. Teramura, UH IFA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cThe compositions of these newfound planets are unknown, but, there is a very real possibility the outer planet is rocky like Earth,\u201d said Erik Petigura, a University of California, Berkeley graduate student who spent a year visiting the UH Institute for Astronomy. \u201cIf so, this planet could have the right temperature to support liquid water oceans.\u201d<\/p>\n

The planets were confirmed by the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) and the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii as well as telescopes in California and Chile.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeck’s contribution to this discovery was vital,\u201d said Andrew Howard, a University of Hawaii astronomer on the team. \u201cThe adaptive optics image from NIRC2 showed the star hosting these three planets is a single star, not a binary. It showed that the planets are real and not an artifact of some masquerading multi-star system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Due to the competitive state of planet finding, and the fact that time on the twin Keck telescopes are scheduled months in advance, the team asked UC Berkeley Astronomer, Imke de Pater to gather some data during her scheduled run.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThe collegiality of the Keck Observatory community is just wonderful,\u201d Howard said. \u201cImke took time away from her own science observations to get us images of this system, all on a couple hours\u2019 notice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new discovery paves the way for studies of the atmosphere of a warm planet nearly the size of Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve learned in the past year that planets the size and temperature of Earth are common in our Milky Way galaxy,\u201d Howard said. \u201cWe also discovered some Earth-size planets that appear to be made of the same materials as our Earth, mostly rock and iron.\u201d<\/p>\n

The astronomers next hope to determine what elements are in the planets\u2019 atmospheres. If these warm, nearly Earth-size planets have thick, hydrogen-rich atmospheres, there is not much chance for life.<\/p>\n

\u201cA thin atmosphere made of nitrogen and oxygen has allowed life to thrive on Earth. But nature is full of surprises. Many extrasolar planets discovered by the Kepler Mission are enveloped by thick, hydrogen-rich atmospheres that are probably incompatible with life as we know it,\u201d said Ian Crossfield, the University of Arizona astronomer who led the study.<\/p>\n

The discovery is all the more remarkable because Kepler is now hobbled by the loss of two reaction wheels that kept it pointing at a fixed spot in space. Kepler, launched in 2009, was reborn in 2014 as \u201cK2\u201d with a clever strategy of pointing the telescope in the plane of the Earth\u2019s orbit to stabilize the spacecraft. Kepler is back to mining the cosmos for planets by searching for eclipses, or transits, as planets orbit in front of their host stars and periodically block some of the starlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was devastated when Kepler was crippled by a hardware failure,\u201d Petigura added. \u201cIt\u2019s a testament to the ingenuity of NASA engineers and scientists that Kepler can still do great science.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kepler sees only a small fraction of the planetary systems in its gaze, those with orbital planes aligned edge-on to our view from Earth. Planets with large orbital tilts are simply missed by Kepler.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s remarkable that the Kepler telescope is now pointed in the ecliptic, the plane that Earth sweeps out as it orbits the Sun,\u201d Fulton explains. \u201cThis means that some of the planets discovered by K2 will have orbits lined up with Earth\u2019s, a celestial coincidence that allows Kepler to see the alien planets, and Kepler-like telescopes in those very planetary systems (if there are any) to discover Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s looking at you, looking at me,\u201d said Howard.<\/p>\n

In addition to Howard and Petigura, UH graduate students Benjamin Fulton and Kimberly Aller, and UH astronomer Michael Liu were among the two dozen scientists who contributed to the study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

W. M. Keck Observatory press release… A team of scientists recently discovered a system of three planets, each just larger than Earth, orbiting a nearby star called EPIC 201367065. The three planets are 1.5-2 times the size of Earth. The outermost planet orbits on the edge of the so-called \u201chabitable zone,\u201d where the temperature may … Continue reading “Three Almost Earth-Size Planets Found Orbiting Nearby Star”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[102,56,1946],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14844"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14844"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14849,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14844\/revisions\/14849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}