Not only may astronomers using a new device have discovered a super-Earth at a neighboring star, but they may have made a direct image of it. And it could be nice and comfortable in the arable zone around Alpha Centauri.
Large planets are much easier to see than Earth-sized planets. Whatever detection method is used, larger planets are just like a larger needle in the cosmic stack. But overall, astronomers have a keen interest in Earth-like planets. And they are harder to find.
We thought we would have to wait until the ultra-powerful telescopes are currently under construction before we can image exoplanets.
Facilities such as the Magellan Giant Telescope and the Great European Telescope will provide great observation power to influence the operation of exoplanet images.
But a team of researchers has developed a new device that could do the job. They say they have painted a picture of a sub-Neptune / super-Earth planet that could change one of our closest neighbors, Alpha Centauri A.
The team provided their views in an article in Nature Communication titled “Painting low-mass planets within the α Centauri agricultural zone.” Lead author Kevin Wagner, astronomer and Sagan Fellow at the University of Arizona.
Although astronomers have previously discovered low-mass exoplanets, they have never noticed their light. They have been watching the planets reveal themselves by grabbing their stars. And they have watched as the light from the stars that host these planets falls as the planet passes in front of the star.
But they never painted a picture just of one. So far, perhaps.
This new detection method comes down to the infrared. One of the challenges in making images of Earth-sized exoplanets in infrared is to see the light coming from an exoplanet when that light is washed away. out with the infrared radiation from the star.
Astronomers can study exoplanets in waves where the infrared background is reduced, but in those same waves, Earth-like medium planets are weak.
One way to look is in the near-infrared (NIR) part of the spectrum. In NIR, the planet’s thermal glue is not washed out by the star. But the star’s light is still blowing, and millions of times brighter than the planet. So looking in the NIR is not just a complete solution.
The solution may be the NEAR (New Earth in AlphaCen Region) instrument used in this research. NEAR is mounted on the ESO (Southern European Observatory) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. It works with the VISIR instrument, also on the VLT. The group behind NEAR is the Breakthrough Watch, part of Yuri Milner ‘s Breakthrough Campaigns.
The NEAR instrument not only monitors the desired part of the infrared spectrum, but also employs a coronograph.
The Breakthrough group believed that the NEAR instrument used on an 8-meter ground-based telescope would allow for a better view of the Alpha Centauri system and its planets.
So they picked up the instrument in collaboration with the ESO and put it on the very large telescope.
This new discovery came as a result of 100 hours of cumulative comments by NEAR and the VLT.
“These results,” the authors write, “demonstrate the ability to make images of rocky zone exoplanets with conventional and upcoming telescopes.”
The 100-hour commission run was for demonstrating the power of the instrument.
The team says that, based on about 80 percent of the best images from that run, the NEAR order of magnitude is better than other methods for observing “” sub-Neptune warm planets across much of the arable zone at α Centauri A. “
They also discovered, perhaps, a planet. “We also talk about the possible detection of an exoplanet or exozodiacal disc around? Centauri A,” they write. “However, an artifact of an instrument of unknown origin cannot be denied.”
This is not the first time astronauts have discovered exoplanets in the Alpha Centauri system.
There are a couple of proven planets in the system, and there are other candidates as well.
But none of them were designed exactly like this new planet, which has the place name C1, and this is the first possible discovery around the M-dwarf in the system , Proxima Centauri.
Follow-up comments must confirm or cancel the assertion.
It is inspiring to think that a warm-Neptune class exoplanet could orbit a Sun-like star in our nearest star system. One of the goals of Breakthrough Initiatives is to launch a lightsal spaceship into the Alpha Centauri system and take a closer look.
But that prospect is out of reach for now. And in some ways, this discovery is not so much about the planet, but about the technology developed to find it.
Most of the exoplanets found on the gigantic planets are similar in mass to Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. These are the easiest ones to find. But as humans from Earth, we are as interested in planets as our own.
Earth-like planets in a star’s arable zone inspire us about the prospects for life on another planet. But they can also tell us a lot about our own Solar System, and how solar systems are in general form and evolving.
If C1 turns out to be a planet, the Breakthrough group has succeeded miserably. They are the first to discover an Earth-like planet by making direct images.
Not only that, but they did it with an 8-meter ground-based telescope and an instrument specifically designed and developed to detect these types of planets in the Alpha Centauri system.
The authors are confident that NEAR can perform well, even compared to much larger telescopes. The conclusion of the paper describes the overall sensitivity of the instrument. Then they write “This would in principle be enough to find an analogue planet Earth around α Centauri A (~ 20 µJy) in just a few hours, which is consistent with what was expected for and ELTan. “
The E-ELT will have a 39-meter main mirror. One of its design capabilities and objectives is to image exoplanets directly, especially smaller ones, the size of the Earth.
In fact, the E-ELT will be an extremely powerful telescope that will undoubtedly fuel scientific discovery for a long time, not only in exoplanet images but in many other ways.
And other gigantic ground-based telescopes alter the exoplanet imagery game, too.
What it took hours to NEAR may only take minutes to see the E-ELT, the Thirty Meter Telescope, or the Giant Magellan Telescope.
NEAR cannot compete with these telescopes and never had a right.
But if these results are proven, NEAR has succeeded where no one else is, and for a fraction of the price of a new telescope.
Either way, the achievements of NEAR seem to represent the future of exoplanet study. Instead of extensive studies such as Kepler and TESS, scientists will soon be able to focus on individual planets.
This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.