Planet hunting

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=22 BGCOLOR="#330099" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="040000d2erkqrf.gif"> <div> Derby and District Astronomical Society - Aries Magazine</div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=145 BGCOLOR="#333399" TEXT="#080000" background="03fa2c00erkjzj.gif"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Aries Astronomy magazine on line From th"><U>HOME</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="One eye on the web ..."><U>One eye on the web ...</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Resurgent Sun"><U>Resurgent Sun</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id69.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Solar Flares"><U>Solar Flares</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sweet meteorites"><U>Sweet meteorites</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id62.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Amazing GRACE"><U>Amazing GRACE</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Power to the ISS"><U>Power to the ISS</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Beneath Sunspots"><U>Beneath Sunspots</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id76.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ice on Mars"><U>Ice on Mars</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sandcastles"><U>Sandcastles</U></A></div> <div> <B>Planet hunting</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id79.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Big moon"><U>Big moon</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id80.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Space power"><U>Space power</U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=458 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="06a92963.gif"> <div> <B>Aries Astronomy magazine on line- From the Derby and District Astronomical Society</B></div> <div> <IMG SRC="04107040.gif" border=0 width="263" height="4" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="604" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 169 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="http://science.nasa.gov/default.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://science.nasa.gov/default.htm"><U><IMG SRC="1ed59570.gif" border=0 width="89" height="87" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="400"><div> Extraterrestrial Jupiter</div> <div> <B>Today astronomers announced the discovery of more than a dozen new planets orbiting distant stars. One of those planetary systems looks a bit like our own.</B></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="94"><div> <A HREF="http://www.nasa.gov/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.nasa.gov/"><U><IMG SRC="18a3d3f0.gif" border=0 width="61" height="63" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="602" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 1362 ><NOBR><div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="602" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 1308 WIDTH="598"><div> <B>June 13, 2002:</B> After 15 years of looking, a top planet-hunting team has finally found a distant planetary system that reminds them of home. Geoffrey Marcy, astronomy professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and astronomer Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington today announced their discovery of a Jupiter-like planet orbiting a Sun-like star at nearly the same distance as the real Jupiter orbits our own Sun.</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/newplanets/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/newplanet"><U><IMG SRC="27e76800.jpg" border=0 width="374" height="128" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> <B>Above</B>: No one knows how <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://exoplanets.org/esp/55cnc/55cnc.shtml" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://exoplanets.org/esp/55cnc/55cnc.sh"><U><U>the 55 Cnc system</U></U></A></FONT> would look to the human eye, but space-artist Lynette Cook has imagined it. This digital painting shows, in the distance, the star with its two innermost planets. In the foreground is a hypothetical moon orbiting a Jupiter-like outer planet.</div> <bR> <div> Astronomers had found Jupiter-like planets around other stars before. But they were all very close to their parent suns (astronomers called the planets "hot Jupiters") and their orbits were elongated -- not circular. "This new planet orbits as far from its star as our own Jupiter orbits the Sun,'' said Marcy. That's what makes it interesting.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> The star, 55 Cancri in the constellation Cancer, was already known to have one planet, announced by Butler and Marcy in 1996. That planet is a gas giant slightly smaller than the mass of Jupiter. It whips around the star in 14.6 days at a distance of only 0.1 AU. (AU means "astronomical unit." It's the distance between Earth and the Sun -- approximately 93-million miles. So, the first planet found in the 55 Cancri system is only one-tenth as far from its star as Earth is from the Sun.)</div> <bR> <div> The newfound planet, announced today, orbits 55 Cancri at 5.5 AU, comparable to Jupiter's distance from our Sun of 5.2 AU. Its slightly elongated orbit takes it around the star in about 13 years, comparable to Jupiter's orbital period of 11.86 years. It is 3.5 to 5 times the mass of Jupiter. The star 55 Cancri is 41 light years from Earth and is about 5-billion years old -- about the same age as our own Sun.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Below</B>: This graphic compares the architecture of our own solar system with that of 55 Cancri. See also a <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/sg/new_planets.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/sg/new_pl"><U><U>related animation</U></U></A></FONT> from JPL. [<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/newplanets/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/newplanet"><U><U>more</U></U></A></FONT>]</div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/newplanets/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/newplanet"><U><IMG SRC="28022e10.gif" border=0 width="290" height="225" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> "We haven't yet found an exact solar system analog, which would have a circular orbit and a mass closer to that of Jupiter. But this shows we are getting close, we are at the point of finding planets at distances greater than 4 AU from the host star," said Butler. "I think we will be finding more of them among the 1,200 stars we are now monitoring."</div> <div> The team shared its data with astronomer Greg Laughlin at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His dynamical calculations show that an Earth-sized planet could survive in a stable orbit between the two gas giants. For the foreseeable future, existence of any such planet around 55 Cancri will remain speculative.</div> <bR> <div> "This planetary system will be the best candidate for direct pictures when the Terrestrial Planet Finder is launched later this decade," added UC Berkeley astronomer Debra Fischer.</div> <bR> <div> Marcy, Butler, Fischer and their team also announced a total of 13 new planets today, including the smallest ever detected: a planet circling the star HD49674 in the constellation Auriga at a distance of .05 AU, one-twentieth the distance from Earth to the Sun. Its mass is about 15 percent that of Jupiter and 40 times that of Earth. This brings the number of known planets outside our solar system to more than 90.</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Want more information ...</div> <bR> <div> ... why not search the internet for more information about the extrasolar planets ...</div> <div>  <IMG SRC="http://service.bfast.com/bfast/serve?bfmid=31103363&siteid=35044309&bfpage=football" BORDER="0" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1" NOSAVE > <FORM ACTION="http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click" > <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="siteid" VALUE="35044309" > <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="bfpage" VALUE="football"> <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="bfmid" VALUE="31103363" > <TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" BORDER="0"> <TR> <TD BGCOLOR="#009900"><IMG SRC="http://www.ask.co.uk/docs/about/questionboxes/questionbox16_a.gif" WIDTH="120" HEIGHT="73"></TD> </TR> <TR><FORM ACTION="http://www.ask.co.uk/main/askjeeves.asp" METHOD="GET"> <TD BGCOLOR="#009900" ALIGN="center" BACKGROUND="http://www.ask.co.uk/docs/about/questionboxes/questionbox16_b.gif" WIDTH="120" HEIGHT="21"><INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="ask" SIZE="13"> <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="scope" VALUE="web"> <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="origin" VALUE="nnnn"> <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="qSource" VALUE="n"></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD BGCOLOR="#009900"><INPUT TYPE="image" SRC="http://www.ask.co.uk/docs/about/questionboxes/questionbox16_c.jpg" BORDER="0" WIDTH="120" HEIGHT="40"></TD> </FORM></TR> </TABLE> </FORM>  </div> <div> ... or search Amazon for books on planets ...</div> <bR> <div>  <form action="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/external-search" method="get"> <input type="hidden" name="tag" value="ariesastronommag"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#000000"> <tr> <td><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <tr> <td align="right" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><font size="1" face="verdana, arial, helvetica"><b>Search:</b></font></td> <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><font size="1" face="verdana, arial, helvetica"><select name="mode" size="1"> <option value="blended">All Products </option> <option value="books">Books </option> <option value="video">DVD & Video </option> <option value="music">Popular Music </option> <option value="classical">Classical Music </option> <option value="software-uk">Software </option> <option value="video-games-uk">PC and Video Games </option> </select> </font></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><font size="1" face="verdana, arial, helvetica"><b>Keywords:</b></font></td> <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><font size="1" face="verdana, arial, helvetica"><input type="text" size="10" name="keyword"> <input type="image" name="Go" src="http://www.associmg.com/assoc/uk/pdm-search-go-btn.gif?tag-id=ariesastronommag" align="absmiddle" border="0" value="Go"></font></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center" valign="top" colspan="2" bgcolor="#000000"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/redirect-home/ariesastronommag?tag-id=ariesastronommag&placement=uk_searchbox.jpg&site=amazon"><img src="http://www.associmg.com/assoc/uk/uk_searchbox.jpg?tag-id=ariesastronommag" alt="In Association with Amazon.co.uk" border="0"></a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </form> </blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote> </body> </html>  </div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="578" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER BGCOLOR=#FFFF00 HEIGHT= 56 ><NOBR><div> <B>Credits & Contacts</B></div> <div> Author: <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="mailto:pb@patbarry.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:pb@patbarry.com"><U><U>Patrick L. Barry</U></U></A></FONT> </div> <div> Responsible NASA official: <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="mailto:ron.koczor@msfc.nasa.gov" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:ron.koczor@msfc.nasa.gov"><U><U>Ron Koczor</U></U></A></FONT></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER BGCOLOR=#FFFF00><NOBR><div> Production Editor: <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="mailto:phillips@spacesciences.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:phillips@spacesciences.com"><U><U>Dr. Tony Phillips</U></U></A></FONT> </div> <div> Curator: <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="mailto:sng.curator@msfc.nasa.gov" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:sng.curator@msfc.nasa.gov"><U><U>Bryan Walls</U></U></A></FONT> </div> <div> Media Relations: <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="mailto:steve.roy@msfc.nasa.gov" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:steve.roy@msfc.nasa.gov"><U><U>Steve Roy</U></U></A></FONT></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER COLSPAN=2 BGCOLOR=#FFFF00 HEIGHT= 76 WIDTH="572"><div> <I>The Science Directorate at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center sponsors the Science@NASA web sites. The mission of Science@NASA is to help the public understand how exciting NASA research is and to help NASA scientists fulfill their outreach responsibilities.</I></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>