smallest extrasolar planet detected

Astronomers set the record for finding the smallest extrasolar planet to date on may 30th, 2008, orbiting around the star MOA-2007-BLG-192L. It is estimated that MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb only has about 3 times the mass then earth does. The planet is guessed to be about 3000 light years away from us, which will make it extremely hard to ever view even with our future telescopes like the giant Magellan telescope. The planet was discovered using the gravitational microlensing technique.

The star MOA-2007-BLG-192L guessed to have only about 6% of our suns mass, so we think it’s either a red dwarf star that sustains nuclear fusion or a brown dwarf, also known as a failed star. This discovery around MOA-2007-BLG-192L just makes us realize that it is very common for low mass stars to have low mass extrasolar planets around them. The extra-solar planet MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb is guessed to be about half the distance that our Earth is to our sun. Which in theory would make this a very cold planet maybe even as cold as Pluto considering that the star doesn’t give off 1/10th of the light our sun does.
So an extrasolar planet discovered 3,000 light years away orbiting a very small star doesn’t really hit the jack pot on discovering a habitable planet. It may, it may not but it shows us that smaller stars like MOA-2007-BLG-192L do have smaller extrasolar planets closer to the size of Earth. It the next ten years I think we will make a giant leap in finding extrasolar planets like MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb, with technology upgrades and extrasolar planet missions and all that.

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the 3 exoplanets around Gliese 876

In this post I am going to talk about a Gliese 876, which is host to 3 extrasolar planets. Gliese 876 is red dwarf star, which means that its fairly cool for a star burning at about 3500 kelvin, and it is estimated to have only 32% of the mass our sun has. Since it is so small Gliese 876 cannot be seen with the naked eye you would need a telescope to see it, lying in the constellation of Aquarius, Gliese 876 is about 15 light years away from us. We would’ve never expected such a small star to have habitable exo-planets about ten years ago.

In 1998 two exo-planet teams, one which was led by Geoffrey Marcy, had discovered a extrasolar-planet orbiting around Gliese 876. The planet was named Gliese 876b, and it was discovered by measuring the radial velocity of the star, as the planets gravity would tug on it. Gliese 876 is estimated to have twice the mass of Jupiter and orbits closer to its parent star then Mercury to our Sun, taking only 61 days to complete a full orbit.

The next extrasolar planet to be discovered orbiting around Gliese 876 was discovered in 2001, Gliese 876C was discovered orbiting even closer then Gliese 876B, taking it about 30 days to complete a full orbit around its parent star. This must cause a huge gravitational battle when the planets align up to each other. Gliese 876C has a little over half the mass of Jupiter.
In 2005 a third extrasolar planet was detected orbiting the red dwarf Gliese, named Gliese 876 d. Gliese 876 d is just barely inside of the habitable zone we believe, and it has about 6-7 times the mass of Earth, we think this might be a terrestrial planet. It takes Gliese 876 d about two days to orbit its parent star.
So the two gas giants orbit the red dwarf in the so called habitable zone, because these are gas giants its almost impossible for them to harbor life. But What about the large moons of Gliese B and C..(if there are any) ? There could be a moon orbiting Gliese b that could be remotely close to the mass of Earth. All the conditions could be right. Life very well possibly could be there and many more Extrasolar planets could be orbiting around the red dwarf Gliese. Time and technology will only tell if there is a extrasolar planet harboring life in the Gliese 876 solar system.

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The Kepler Mission

The Kepler Mission is space observatory that is being ran by NASA. The main objective of the Kepler Mission will be to find Earth like extrasolar planets. It will observe and record planet transits on about 100,000 stars for a period of 4 years. Some of the things the Kepler Mission will help us determine will be, how many terrestrial or earth like exoplanets and large exoplanets there are in a stars habitable zone, the orbital paths and sizes of the exoplanets, guesstimate how many exoplanets there are in multi-star systems or binary star systems, the properties of the stars that harbor exoplanets and finding more exoplanets by the larger planets that have all ready been discovered.

The estimated launch date for the Space Observatory Kepler is February 16th, 2009. Though it probably wont be launched on this date since this mission has been delayed back a couple times do to NASA funding.

The spacecraft Kepler wont be orbiting Earth but it will be trailing behind Earth in the suns orbit taking it about 372 days to orbit the sun. This is so the Earth wont interfere with the spacecraft continuously focusing in on the 100,000 stars. The spacecrafts photometer will be aimed at the Cygnus constellation. The lens will be 1.4 meters, and the Kepler shoots with 27 micrometre pixels. The Kepler Mission will cost about 450 million dollars.

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The Giant Magellan Telescope

Whats in store for the near future for discovering earth like extrasolar planets is The Giant Magellan Telescope or (GMT). The Giant Magellan Telescope is collaboration project between multiple universities and research labs to construct a giant telescope of the future. The Giant Magellan Telescope is going to take a giant leap in telescope technology and open the stars up for discovering and viewing extrasolar planets like we have never been able to do before. Other things the telescope could open up are the research of dark matter and dark energy properties, the formation of stars and black holes, the collapse of stars and black holes, better mapping of our milky way galaxy, supernovas, undiscovered galaxies, and maybe even see light beyond the edge of our universe !

At the Stewart Observatory Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona, right under the football field bleachers, the Giant Telescope project is all ready underway with the construction of the seven giant 8.4 meter telescope mirrors. One of these giant mirrors are already successfully completed. The telescope is scheduled to be completed in the Year 2017 or late 2016 pending on proper funding. The Giant Magellan Telescope will be able to make images about 10 times more sharper then the famous Hubble Telescope. The telescope will be able to do this due to the size of its 7 mirrors that are 8.4 meters each. The telescope will have a center mirror and then 6 other mirrors that are off axis surrounding the center telescope mirror in a hexagon. The first mirror was completed November 3rd, 2005, but still there is much polishing and adjusting to do on this Giant Telescope.

When the telescope is completed it will be placed inside a cylinder shaped domed to protect it from weather and undesired light. The dome the telescope will be placed in will be 64 meters high and 51 meters wide. And of course will have adjustable vents for proper airflow and all of that.

The Giant Magellan Telescope has all ready been confirmed of wheres its location is going to be, the Las Campanas Observatory, located in northern Chile, which is also the location of the two Magellan Telescopes, Baade and Clay....This site was chosen because it is one of the best sites on Earth for telescopes to view the stars and more, there is very little to none light pollution and the weather is pretty clear all year round making this a great place for telescopes. Once the Giant Magellan Telescope is complete we will be able to directly view extrasolar planets and maybe even smaller Earth like planets with this telescopes power. When the Giant Magellan Telescope is completed it will surely open our eyes on how we view exoplanets in our milky way galaxy, and also, so much more.


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earthlike exoplanets part 2

Are there extrasolar planets beyond our solar system ? This was once a question that had seemed very far fetched to most scientists that there would be planets out of our solar system and even if there were extrasolar planets out there how the hell would we be able to find them seeing that they barely emit ant light at all ?
Approximately 50 lights years away from Earth in the constellation Pegasus is a gas giant exoplanet. Just about the same size as Jupiter and it orbits its parent star about once every four days. This planet is known as a hot Jupiter and the exoplanets name 51 Pegasi B, the first extrasolar planet to be detected orbiting a star out of our solar system. This discovery was a break though but really jsut a stepping stone to finding a exoplanet similar to our very own Earth. Even by chance if there is just 1% of the stars out there have a earthlike planet in there solar system that still leaves the number of earthlike exoplanets over a billion. So if we can find just one earthlike world then we will definitly know that they are very common. And if earthlike planets are common then guess what else is? Life and that is our ultimate goal. We are getting closer to finding earthlike planets like Gliese 436B. Which was found to have a density of 2.2 grams per cubic centimeter. Which means that this planet is mostly made of rock and water. But unlike earth this planet is completely covered with water but it is very different from our Earths water, the water is basically solid from so much pressure just like ice except it is not cold. So still not very earthlike but this is one of the smaller extrasolar planets we have discovered yet.
A good place to start looking for earthlike planets would be around smaller stars or dwarf stars, like Gliese 876, which we have found three exoplanets orbiting around it two are like jupiter and the other one Gliese 876D has a mass of just about 5 times that of Earth. All three of these planets are thought to be orbiting in a "habitable" zone and the smaller extrasolar planet may even have liquid water on it. The Gas Giants inside the stars habitable zone surely wont be a good place for water and life but it is almost certain that these gas giants have many many moons which may be full of life. Just 15 light years away will we be able to ever get a good look at these exoplanets ? Yes. AS soon as the Giant Magellan Super Telescope is complete we will be able to view Extrasolar Planets.

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How many Earthlike Planets could there be?

ExtraSolar Planets...we know that they are out there..currently as of June 6th 2008 there are 294 extrasolar planets and so far none of them actually resemble a "earthlike" type of planet. Mostly all extrasolar planets that have bee detected have masses much closer to that of the planet Jupiter than of earth and they orbit thier parent star pretty darn closely. Kinda like mercury orbits our sun. So how the hell can we detect these smaller planets the ones that are capable of harnessing life and water and are far from their parent star orbiting naturally in a habitable zone. Well once we have the extrasolar planets confirmed that are near their apparent star we can use the same wobble technique that we used to find the jupiter size planet an put it to use. Find its moons and if their are any smaller planets orbiting out their in the habitable zone. We have many future missions to identify smaller earthlike extrasolar planets coming up in the near future. one of them is the Keppler mission which was started in 2001 and is set to launch in may 2009. We are estimating that the Kepler mission will discover possibly 1,000 new extrasolar planets in just one year viewing over 300,000 near bye stars in our Milky Way galaxy. Many of these extrasolar planets are estimated to be "earthlike".

We have found a couple earthlike planets out there even though they are about 3-10 times of mass that earth has. But we have found rocky planets and even extrasolar planets that are guessed to be made up of nothing BUT water! Do they harbor life? scientists dont have enough evidence to answer that yet and the amount that they have point to the "no" direction.

We are pretty sure there are WAY more extrasolar planets out there then there are stars. In our own Milky Way Galaxy there estimated to be a couple hundred billion stars. and now the Milky Way Galaxy is considered to be an average sized Galaxy. Now how many earthlike planets do think are in our Milky Way galaxy ? Probably a couple billion or so. And how many of these earthlike extrasolar planets might have advanced intelligence? Lets say a couple million or so. Not even counting all of the satellites (moons) orbiting these extrasolar planets.

Now lets just think about all of the galaxies that are out there in our universe. We really have no clue but we know and have observed 100's of billions of galaxys and we can only observe like 15% of the universe. So how many earthlike extrasolar planets do think are out there now? How many do you think have advanced intelligence. Probably about 300 billion or so give or take a few hundred billion. Now how many Universes are out there ???? There could be none there could be billions. And this is just basing all of our knowledge that we know of is capable of producing intelligent life.

We know very little about other galaxies and we know nothing of other universes which could have a totally different principle and rules on physics !!! They could be 4 or 5 dimensional we have no idea. And whos to say certain cellestial galaxies or even stars in our own galaxy dont have intelligent life on a exoplanet thats has no water at all? We breathe oxygen...why cant a life form evolve that which they breathe hydrogen and have razor sharp teeth with titanium stomachs that eat rock to survive !?!? Far fetched? Only to us and what we know now. Think about how much and what we new about the stars then. Think about how much we will know in the year 3000 a.d.? In the year 3000 a.d. scientists will make jokes about are hypothesis here in our modern age. We would have allready contacted intelligent life on extrasolar planets by then if the planet earth is still around. Extrasolar planets are everywhere in the night sky we just cant see them yet. But I know as the years and decades increase so will the discovery of extrasolar planets .

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A few ways to find Extrasolar planets

Astronomers have many ways they can find extrasolar planets. The first technique astronomers use to discover extrasolar planets is with the wobble technique. This is where the gravity of a jupiter sized planet pulls on its star making it wobble around. These planets are always huge and always pretty close to thier star hence the pulling. Not a very good way to find a earthlike planet in a stars habitable zone.

Another way extrasolar planets have been found is through the transit method. This is where we can see a brief dimming in front of the star. When the planet orbits in front of the parent star it will cause aa extemely small dimming and if this occurs over and over it more then likely a extrasolar planet. Still though its not a very good method to find a earthlike planet in the a stars habitable zone.

Theres also direct imaging, which is almost impossible since we dont have telescopes that could see something like a planet which barely gives off any light at all from such far distances. Although I have read somewhere that a few extrasolar planets have been discovered this way. First one was in 2004 but its not a very good method in my book until we devolope more powerful telescopes like the Kepler set to launch in 2009.

Gravitational microlensing, a trick of Einstien gravity, which is capable of detecting smaller earth sized planets. Say an observer sees a distant star A an a dimmer star B aligns with Star A. The gravitational field from star B is going to bend the light from star A resulting in a brighter star A. If thiers a planet in star B, there will be a short but protruding fluctuation of star A's light curve. The only downfall to this method that its not able to be done that often since the conditions for this to work are pretty rare.

Thats all I have for ways to find ExtraSolar Planets for now.

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exoplanet graphics by me

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ways to find exoplanets

We have the Astrometric Wobble Method to find exoplanets, the Gravitational Microlensing Method, Planetary Transit Method, and the best method so far which have found us the most extrasolar planets, Doppler Wobble (RV) Method. I will explain these methods further in another post.

What is a exoplanet?

What exactly is an extrasolar planet? Also known as a exoplanet? A exoplanet is a planet that is orbiting a different star. Basically a planet that is not in our solar system. 1st discovered and confirmed in the early 1990's. Since the 1st confirmed discovery of a exoplanet beyond our solar system scientists and amateur sky gazers had found approximately 30 exoplanets up to the year 2000. From the beginning of the year 2000 until know more then 200 exoplanets have been found and confirmed. The number just keeps growing, our technology keeps getting better, and we will soon find an exoplanet that has all the right ingredients to harness life. As of June 2008 there approximately 294 exoplanets. We are strongly guessing there are many more exoplanets out there then stars considering we have found many stars that harness many exoplanets in their solar system. I'm willing to bet that a star 5 times the size of our sun could have about 40 exoplanets orbiting it, maybe a 1000 moons, now, here in our milky way galaxy we are guessing theres a couple hundred billion stars......half of these stars or more is highly probable of having planets and moons orbiting it. o does life exist beyond earth ??? For certain just not proven YET. Okay, over a hundred billion stars in our milky way galaxy, just a galaxy, average sized, out of how many galaxies? Add another hundred billion just to be safe... So how many exoplanets to you think could be out there? I am pretty sure the number doesn't exist unless you are a super math nerd that knows number amounts beyond kazillions ? lol. So if life out there on a distant exoplanet in a different galaxy? YES. Will we ever prove it in our life time? Probably not. Will we discover an exoplanet that harnesses the ingredients that could support extraterrestrial life in our milky way? More then likely in our lifetime we will...but communicating with them is another story......for now...lets just keep our eyes open for any new exoplanets .....