Astronomers find Neptune-shaped exoplanets
Astronomers find Neptune-shaped exoplanets


Astronomers find Neptune-shaped exoplanets around the debris disk around Au star microscopy. Astronomers using NASA's Transit Exoplanet Study Satellite (TESS) and the Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered a planet the size of Neptune, the closest AU main-sequence to primary microscopy.

Au The artistic impression of microscopy b. Au microscopy (Au mic), also known as GliSe 803 and HD 197481, is 31.9 light years away in the microscope's southern planetarium. The star is only 22 million years old and is a member of a collection of nearby stars called the Beta Pictoris Moving Group, which takes its name from a large Type A star that affects two planets.

The AU microphone is surrounded by a relatively rare edge of debris that extends from the star to approximately 35 to 210 AU (astronomical units). "Au Mike is an asteroid, containing only 50% of the Sun's mass," said Dr. Jonathan Gagne called an astronomer at the University of Montreal Exoplanet Research Institute.

These cables generally have very strong magnetic fields, which make them very active. It partly explains why it took about 15 years to locate Exoplanet, it is called Au Mike Bee. Several points and explosions on the surface of the Au microphone prevented its discovery, which was already complicated by the presence of a disc. Au Mic B has a radius of 0.4 Jupiter radius and a mass of less than 0.18 Jupiter mass.

It only orbits its original star once every 8.5 days at a distance of 8.57 AU. "AU Mike is a young and close dwarf star. It is surrounded by a huge debris disk that tracks more and more dust, and now, thanks to TESS and Spitzer, it has a line. Size is a planet with measurements," said Bryson Kel , a doctoral student at George Johnson University.

"There is no other known system that ticks all of these important boxes." We believe the microphone is far from the star and migrates inward in its current orbit, something that can happen if planets interact with the gas disk or with other planets with gravity, according to a study by the University of Maryland. Scientific researcher Dr. Thomas Barclay was added.

A project scientist for TESS in Baltimore County and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "In contrast, the orbit of Beta pectoris B has not migrated at all. The difference between similar aging systems can tell us a lot about how planets form and migrate."

An additional candidate seen in the TES Traffic data is the event, and TES will wait au mike later this year on its extended mission, said Dr. Peter Plural, an astronomer at George Mason University. "We continue to monitor the star with accurate radial velocity measurements, so stay tuned." The team's article was published in the journal Nature.




Why the discovery of this baby planet is important to astronomers
Why the discovery of this baby planet is important to astronomers

Why the discovery of this baby planet is important to astronomers. It is the dream of astronomers to find exoplanets of young stars near our Earth. They see this as an opportunity to closely study the formation and development of this type of planetary system. And one of those opportunities they have today with a red dwarf and their Neptune-like planet.

AU microscopy is a star of a planetary austral microscope. Although only 32 light years from our Earth, that invisible finger is bare. He is smaller than our sun. This is what the astronomer called the red dwarf. It is less than 30 million years old, 150 times less than our Sun. And around it a huge disk of debris, which maintains the rest of its formation.

For more than a decade, astronomers have hoped to find an exoplanet there. Now it's done. Data transmitted by the Exoplanet in transit study satellite (TESS) and the Spatial Spitzer telescope speak, confirming the presence of a giant Neptune, 58 times more massive than our Earth and 8% more voluntary than Neptune, which AU circles microscopy at 8.5 days. A planet called AU Mic b.

The system offers astronomers a unique opportunity to study how planets and their atmospheres form, evolve, and interact with their stars. "We believe that AU Mic b forms away from its star and moves into its orbital flux, which can occur when planets make contact with gas disks or other planets," said Thomas Barclay, Associate Investigator states on the TESS program. at the Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA - United States).

Learn more about planetary formation: This new system looks very different from the other, but belongs to the same star union. The system is made up of Beta Pictoris and its two exoplanets. The star is already bigger and warmer than AU microscopy. But it is also surrounded by a disk of rubble. In contrast, Beta Portoris B and C are at least 50 times larger than Au B. And it takes them 21 and 3.3 years respectively to move around their star.

"The Beta Pictoris B class doesn't seem to migrate. The differences between these same-age systems can tell us a lot about how planets form and migrate," says Thomas Barclay. Another traffic event can be seen in the data. Before the end, astronomers report that another transit event.

This is how they pass, in our view, from a planet in front of its star. "- could be seen from the data. Tess. However, to confirm the existence of a second exoplanet in the microphone system, we will have to wait for further comments later this year.

Mysterious waves discovered near the star under a microscope by analyzing the images acquired with VLT and Hubble, astronomers have been able to study dust disks located around a nearby star known as Au microscopy.

They discovered unknown structures there. Like the strong waves of a movement, until now nothing is seen or conceived. The origin and nature of these structures provide researchers with a new field of research.

AU microscopy (AU microphone) is a young star, located at a distance of 32 light years from our solar system. It is surrounded by a dust disk containing a broken toasteroid into pieces from a violent collision. Studies of similar debris disks are likely to complement our understanding of planetary formation processes from such structures.

Astronomers looked for the slightest indication of a distorted or lumpy structure, as evidence of the possible existence of planets, on the microphone discs. For this purpose, in 2014, they used the new sphere of equipment installed in VLT (Very Large Telescope) in Chile. Sensibly aided by this powerful device in minor strange expansions, he made a strange discovery.

"Something unexpected was found in our comments", reports Anthony Boccaletti, researcher at Lesia (Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, UPMC, Paris-Diderot) and the first author of an article published in the journal Nature, edition of October 8, 2015 . The images acquired by the field reveal a set of inexplicable structures within the disc.

They have an arched or wavy shape, which has already been seen in the past. The wave in the dust disk surrounding the Au microscopy star is reflected in this time-lapse animation created from images acquired across the field by Hubble and VLT. Very strong wave: new images include such waves on the water surface, the five arcs generally have a negative structure at a different distance from the star.

After identifying them using data from the sphere. The team consulted old images of the discs obtained by the Hubble STIS spectrograph in 2010 and 2011. It seemed like this, not only that these structures appeared in images from space telescopes, but also that they had changed over time. In fact, these waves move very fast! But observing the disk from the edge complicates the interpretation of its three-dimensional structure.

After further image processing as a result of the Hubble data, we were able to reconstruct the movements of these strange structures over a period of four years," says Christian Thalmann (ETH Zurich, Switzerland). We could see that the arcs were receding from the stars at speeds of up to 40,000 km / h! "

The structures furthest from the star move at a faster speed than the closest. At least three structures move so fast that they can survive the gravitational pull of the star. The existence of such a high velocity excludes the hypothesis that these structures arise from disturbances in the disk caused by objects, such as planets, that orbit. An unknown, and indeed unusual, element is the origin of the acceleration of these associations and their speed must be so high.

Looking for an explanation for the phenomenon: "This discovery brought some of their surprise," added Carole Grady of the Eureka Scientific Group. And since none of that has been seen in the past or predicted by theory, only we can speculate on the origin of the event and the observed event. ”

The team cannot say with certainty the reason for these mysterious incitements around the star. However, she considered and rejected a set of possible events, such as asteroid-like collisions of two heavy and rare objects that release large amounts of dust or spiral waves generated by gra<tok2> instability within the system. The alien structure may have a link to the star bud.

Au Mic is a very active star, a sudden, significant burst that occurs on or near its surface, the study wrote. Explains Glenn Schneider of the Steward Observatory in Arizona. One of these explosions could trigger something on one of the planets, if there are planets, for example, a violent ejection of matter that would now spread through the disk, causing the explosion. He will be intensely motivated.

The field is only in its first year of operation and is already capable of studying these discs. So we can only welcome this promising result that confirms the great capabilities of the instrument, concludes Jean-Luc Bezuite, co-author of this research and co-designer of the instrument.

The team aims to continue to inspect the microphone systems using other tools, including the field and core, to understand the processes on the job. At the moment, these strange structures remain a real mystery.