Monday, September 30, 2024
Habitable Planets Nearest To Earth
Wednesday, August 19, 2020
NASA's TESS - Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite Completes First Mission
NASA's TESS the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite now has completed it's very first mission taking two years to complete. Tess will continue it's stay orbiting our earth while continuing to gather information about may new worlds we are discovering everywhere throughout the skies. Tess has confirmed 66 planets to date and is awaiting ground based telescope observations to confirm more then 2100 other planetary candidates.
As a follow up to the Kepler Mission, TESS is NASA's is NASA's new looking glass designed to peer across our universe for the tell tale signs of planets orbiting other stars. TESS scans the skies studying the light signatures of stars by the thousands looking for the tell tale dimming's in the luminosity of other stars that happens as a planet crosses and blocks light in respect to our view from earth. After the completion the first two years survey selection TESS still has much planet to do and will now begin an extended planet hunting mission that NASA hopes will be able to find many new worlds. TESS's primary mission briefly mapped 75% of the visible sky from earth's view, granting us a 30 day study of each star, mission data is composed of many segments as TESS rotated it's point of view across the universe. Some target stars depending on where they are located in the night sky have more time series data than others.
The telescope started by mapping the southern skies and once this was completed the telescope shifted the focus into the northern skies. Beginning again TESS will flip it's perspective to focus on the southern skies in depth, the telescope will also now take a light sample from each target every ten minutes as previously data points were binned at higher intervals. This new improvement will allow exclusive study for stars that pulsate, flare stars and will provide in depth star light luminosity details with new discoveries in star type classifications. During The Kepler Mission an entirely new class of Binary Stars were found by studying their light signatures, they were entitled "Heartbeat Binary" stars because the distinct way the light was captured by Kepler's photometer and then displayed beautifully showing a heartbeat like pattern.
A Heart Beat Binary Light Curve From The Kepler Mission
Delta Scuti Stars were also studied, these variable stars give a wonderfully artistic display when viewed on a light curve graph, the variations show each individual stars periodic variability and modulations.
A Delta Scuti Light Curve From The Kepler Mission
NASA's team plans on using the new ability to capture star light data at ten minute intervals to learn more about exotic types of pulsating and variable star classifications. TESS is scheduled to complete 15 months surveying the southern skies and then another to survey areas along the ecliptic plane of TESS's orbit around the sun as they have not been viewed yet.
Detecting new exoplanets in other star systems in a new field of study that has never existed before in the history of mankind. The first extrasolar planetary detection was confirmed in 1992 when radio astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail announced a new discovery of planets orbiting the pulsar star PSR 1257+12. Follow up observations confirmed this discovery, today we know there are three planets in the star system believed to have been formed from the remnants of a supernova as part of a second round of planetary formation. One theory suggests these planets are the rocky cores of gas giants that survived the event and have now settled into their current orbits.
A second confirmed exoplanet detection happened roughly 30 years ago when a Giant planet orbiting with a 4.2 day period was detected around a nearby main sequence star known as Pegasi 51. This discovery was made by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of the university of Geneva, the pair shared a Nobel Prize in Physics and their efforts are thought to have ushered in the modern era of planet hunting.
1n 1999 Upsilon Andromedae won the title of being the first even known main sequence star with multiple planets. Upsilon Andromedae is located 44 light years from earth and is actually a Binary Star with a F Type Maine sequence star that is orbited by a smaller red dwarf star. Today we know Upsilon Andromedae has for planets b, c, d, and e; it was not only the first ever known main sequence star discovered with multiple planets, but also the first ever binary star discovered with multiple planets!
The James Webb telescope is as well currently being built with the capability of studying in depth the atmospheric compositions of planets while finding new ones. The James Webb telescope is scheduled to be launched by NASA in 2021; it will be the largest, most powerful and complex space telescope ever designed and launched.
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
Kepler 62-E & 62-F
The Kepler 62 system lies 1200 light years away from Earth and has five planets orbiting around a
star much smaller than our own. Kepler-62-e and Kepler-62-f are not much larger than earth, but however they lie within their stars habitable zone; the area surrounding a star capable of supporting liquid water.
The figure above compares the Kepler 62 system on left with our own solar system on right. The shaded green area represents an estimate of the habitable zone surrounding each star. The figure below gives statistical analysis of both the Kepler 62 system and our own solar system.
Most Amazing Gravitational Lenses
Abell 2218
Location: Draco 2.1 Billion light Years Away
This picture is focused on Galaxy Cluster Abell 2218, the cluster rich with galaxies is located 2.1 billion light years away from earth in the constellation of Draco. Astronomers look at the super galaxy cluster containing thousands of galaxies with a wide variety of tools, it can be viewed in many spectrums like as infra red and pure visible light.
When used as a looking glass this gravitational lenses allows astronomers to look far into the past, by doing this they can study very distant galaxies, the evolution of the universe and early galaxy formation. While making an excellent looking glass, gravitational lenses distort and shape light into arclets as it passes through the curvature of space time. Scientists can examine far away objects by comparing several images of the same subject.
Subjects are detectable in the near infra red light spectrum; due to traveling billions of years to earth while the universe expands the light waves are expanded from the visible wave length into the near infra red spectrum.
Image Credit: NASA / ESU / JPL
Abell 370
Location: Cetus
Abell 370 lies in the constellation of Cetus and NASA's Hubble has viewed with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) over a distance of five billion light-years
to gather in detail the intricate workings of this galaxy cluster. The light from objects near and far is streaked into arks as it passes by the energy dense region of Abell 370. Gravitational lensing in as essential tool for astronomers who seek to better understand the workings of our universe; to better understand the relationship between stars, galaxies, energy, matter and the invisible substance dubbed dark matter.
Gravitational lensing is a vital tool for astronomers when measuring the dark matter distribution in massive clusters, since the mass distribution can be reconstructed from observations of its gravitational effects. The subjects on interest studied most are Galaxy Clusters; they represent the most massive structures of mass and energy throughout the universe. Some Galaxy clusters can contain thousands of Galaxies which are formed upon the death of larger stars. Galaxies are composed of Stars, Asteroids, Hot Gas, Dust, Energy and possibly a substance called dark matter.
Image Credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble SM4 ERO Team
Dark Matter Ring Galaxy Cluster Cl 0024+17
Taken by The Hubble Space Telescope this photo composite shows an unexplained halo surrounding this galaxy, this halo is suspected to be dark matter. The ring represents the strongest piece of evidence so far to support the existence of dark matter. The photo shows how galaxy cluster ZwCl0024+1652 distorts light from distant and surrounding galaxies. This photo was taken in 2004 by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Thanks to the exquisite resolution astronomers have a new clue about how dark matter, galaxy clusters and gravitational lenses can be structured.
Monday, August 10, 2020
Amazing Views In Space: Andromeda, M106, ISON Comet
Andromeda A spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light years (2.4×1019 km) from Earth. Our closest galactic neighbor!
Spiral galaxy M106 in the constellation Canes Venatici as discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781
A Picture of ISON comet
A quasar black hole, this is the brightest object in the universe and is thousands of times brighter than all the stars in a galaxy combined.
Ring of fire solar eclipse
CREDIT: JPL NASA
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Kepler Mission and New Planetary Systems 2018
NASA's Kepler Mission
Ever since the beginning of time mankind has gazed upon the stars and all the beauty of the heavens wondering if we are truly alone on this sanctuary we call earth.
For the first time we have the technology and resources to answer this question. NASA's Kepler Mission has illuminated our understanding that planetary and star systems exist commonly throughout the universe, allowing us to see that planets just like our own will likely come into light. Our understanding of the results will ultimately define our understandings of habitable zones, the many types of harmonic and chaotic planetary systems, universal elemental abundances, the many types of atmospheric compositions we will find and the most general future of new planetary prospects.
The Kepler Mission provided researchers with over 3 years of continuous light data for approximately 500,000 stars in neighboring Lyrae and Cygnus Star Constellations. Someday we may even understand that planets exist more commonly through out the universe than stars. Results from the Kepler Mission indicate that more massive planets are found around more massive stars. Information gathered allows analysis of moving dynamics of planets in star systems, atmospheric structures and characteristics, variety and classification of planetary profiles.
To date all known planets have been discovered from a variety of techniques including transit surveys, radial velocities, gravitational lenses, gravitational interactions, infrared heat signatures, and visual confirmations. From these we see giant gas planets, mini Neptune's, water worlds and many exotic earth like planets. We have also find many planets may exist in harmony around binary and trinary star systems. These discoveries are making advancements in ever evolving fields of planetary sciences, atmospheric physics and astrophysics. Planets revealing transit timing variations hint the presence of other planets in the system.
Binary and Trinary star systems tend to have large transit timing variations due to many gravitational interactions. These systems exhibit strong resonances through conservation of angular momentum which are the key foundations of system harmonics. Information can be extracted from known systems revealing the moving dynamics for systems, Keplerian motion, orbital timings, planet to planet gravitational interactions, the revelation of the different types of harmonic and chaotic planetary systems, light travel time and new advancements of star system spectral analysis.
Habitable Zones are the area around a star where liquid water may exist, defining whether or not a planet may be hospitable to life. The inner edge is in the hot zone, typically up to 340 Kelvins where water vapor dramatically increases and create strong greenhouse atmospheric conditions. At 373 Kelvins on models of earthlike planets it is predicted that oceans would evaporate entirely.
The opposite edge of the habitable zone is 273 Kelvins where water freezes or at about 1.7 AU from a sun like star like our own because planetary atmospheres become opaque to stellar radiation. In addition short period planets with non zero eccentricity hint the presence of other low mass planets. Internal planetary structures may be probed if 2 planets exist.
We will explore the results and current finding's of the Kepler Mission here. It is estimated that %30 of stars may harbor earthlike planets that our technology may not be easily able to detect, while sometimes we do still find larger earthlike planets. Our results also indicated that older red dwarf stars tend to be deficient of gas planets. Hot Jupiter's were missing from Kepler results possibly due to reflectivity. Hot Neptune's and super earths have been found frequently.
Confirmed Planets 4,197
Detected By Kepler 2,622
Kepler Candidates 2418
Detected By K2 409
K2 Candidates 889
TESS Confirmed 66
TESS Candidates 2120
Ice Giants 1,250
Gas Planets 1,001
Super Earths 776
Terrestrial 348
By Detection Method
Astrometry 1
Imaging 44
Radial Velocities 686
Transit 2960
Transit Timing Variations 15
Eclipsing Timing Variations 9
Microlensing 64
Pulsating Timing Variations 2
Orbital Brightness Modulations 6
By Kepler Light Curves 2622
Transiting 2983
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