The extrasolar technique which actually has an identity – Big screen 219134b – includes 3 (three) inner super-Earths, or exoplanets that will greatly bigger than earth but small compared to our solar-energy system’s barriers biggest, you surrounding air tremendous.
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Another reason why HD219134b is thrilling is because it the closet known transiting planet to the scientists and therefore offers them the unique opportunity for further study of the way it has been composed and the atmosphere against the star’s backdrop.
Astronomers from University of Geneva, who had been part of the research, said, “Its mean density is close to the density of Earth, suggesting a possibly similar composition as well”.
“It’s very close to the star“.
“When the primary HARPS-I radial-velocity measurements indicated the presence of a 3-day planet round HD219134, we instantly requested NASA for Spitzer area telescope time”, stated Ati Motalebi, astronomer at University of Geneva (UNIGE) and first writer of the paper describing the invention.
It has been hiding out in the M-shaped, northern hemisphere constellation Cassiopeia, “just” 21 light years from Earth.
Michael Werner, the project scientist for the Spitzer mission said that transiting exoplanets were worth their weight in gold because they can be extensively characterised.
HD219134b, the planet with the shortest orbit whizzes on a 3-days interval and has been observed transiting across the face of its star when looked from the Earth’s vantage point.
While the planet is close in both size and mass to Earth, the similarities end there.
The team which spotted the system also measured the size of HD2191134b when it transited the star. “This one is practically a next-door neighbour”, said astronomer and study co-author Lars A. Buchhave of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Fortune favors the courageous; HD 219134b does indeed transit the star. For reference, the closest known planet is GJ674b at 14.8 light-years away; its composition is unknown.
Based on Spitzer observations, combined with an analysis of radial velocities, the astronomers were able to identify the density of the super-Earth.
HD219134b is 4.5 times more massive than the Earth and 1.6 times larger, what planet hunters call a super-Earth. 6 times larger.
The planet, likely a volcanic world of molten rock, resides in a system with two other super-Earths orbiting a bright, dwarf star. It was deemed as being the closest transiting planet to our own and hopes have already sprung about taking pictures of this new unveiling. Its host star is visible to the unaided eye from dark skies, meaning anyone with a good star map can see this record-breaking system.
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“This system, reminiscent of our own Solar System with the inner “small”, planets and the outer gaseous one, will without doubt encounter a growing interest from the astronomical community”.
