Reporter: Modeline Nicholas Longjohn
Science as we know it is always evolving. Novel knowledge, mechanisms and pathways are continuously unravelled, some of which arise as a result of tenacious and arduous research while others are owed to serendipity. These discoveries have necessitated a change in school curricula and textbook contents in astounding ways; as they have challenged the currently accepted understanding of key concepts.
Part 1:-
Planet PDS70b
This planet was discovered by German astronomers at the Max Planck Institute led by Dr. Miriam Keppler, when they took a photograph of this baby planet, as it budded off the star PDS 70. Using the SPHERE instrument on the European Southern Observatory (ESO)’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), the team of Astronomers were able to measure the brightness of the planet at different wavelengths.
In order to visualize this planet, a mask within the VLT called a coronagraph blocks out the blinding light coming from the central star (by creating the dark centre circle). This masking effect allows the detection of the ultra-bright Planet PDS70b as a fainter disc (the bright circular image to the right of the dark circle).
Analysis shows that PDS70b is a gas filled planet which is large than Planet Jupiter.With a surface temperature of 1000 oC, this planet is several times hotter than planets within Earth’s solar system. The distance from the central star to this planet is three billion kilometers, about the same distance from Planet Uranus to the Sun.
To follow-up this discovery, further investigations are already underway by a team including Dr. Miriam Keppler.
Details of the discovery papers can be found below:
Keppleret al, 2018, Astronomy and Astrophysics.
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1821/eso1821a.pdf
Mulleret al, 2018, Astronomy & Astrophysics.
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1821/eso1821b.pdf
Part 2:-
In 2016, researchers at the National Science Foundation have discovered a new nomadic planet called SIMP J01365663+0933473 (SIMP for short). Using the National Science Foundation’s high-tech equipment called the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), the scientists were able to observe a planetary-mass object far away from Earth’s solar system.
Scientists thought of SIMP as a brown dwarf – an object which couldn’t be a star (too small to be) or a planet (too big to be). Subsequent studies in 2017 led by Dr. Melodie Gao of Arizona State University showed that SIMP which is in fact 12.7 times the mass and 1.2 times the radius of Jupiter, can be considered a planet.As a planet, SIMP does not orbit a star (has no sun) but is still extremely hot in comparison to Planet Earth and even Venus (which is the hottest planet in our solar system). This heat is believed to be residues from SIMP’s initial formation (over two hundred million years ago).
Usingradio waves, the scientists were able to measure the magnetic field of SIMP,which was found to be approximately four million times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field. These magnetic field enable the planet to produce spectacular light displays, generating auroras in a different manner from Earth’s. Auroras are electrical fields which create reddish or greenish lights in the sky as are sult of charged particles accelerating along planetary magnetic field lines.The closest examples to this on Earth are the Northern and southern lights and is also seen on planet Jupiter which has a magnetic field which is 20,000 times stronger than Earth’s. SIMP’s spectacular auroras suggests that this planet may have its own moon. Scientists believe the success of the VLA in detecting a planet using auroral radio waves will open up new frontiers in exoplanet research.
More information on this discovery can be found on the research paper below:
Kao et al, 2018. http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4365/aac2d5