Catalog highlights systems with pairs similar to Earth and Jupiter – 12/24/2023 – Sidereal Messenger

At this point, with more than 5,000 exoplanets discovered, we know that planetary systems exist in the most varied configurations. We have already found a reasonable number of worlds like our giant Jupiter, in orbits similar to itss. And our catalogs contain an even greater number of planets similar in size to Earth, in orbits comparable to our planet. But if we want to find planetary systems that are truly similar to ours, we will have to find stars around which these two “species” manifest together. This was the goal of the team led by Lauren Weiss, from the University of Notre Dame, in Indiana (USA), which is finally starting to bear fruit.

Kepler’s Search for Giant Planets took ten years to complete. This is because, to detect an exoplanet with an orbit similar to Jupiter’s (which takes 12 years to circle the Sun), it is necessary to observe it long enough for it to complete at least one revolution. The original Kepler space telescope mission lasted four years (from 2009 to 2013) and was designed to probe the region equivalent to Earth’s orbit around other stars, and not much more than that.

Furthermore, its method of detecting exoplanets, through transits (when the star passes in front of its parent star and temporarily reduces its brightness), is more sensitive to worlds with shorter orbits. Result: Kepler’s original catalog contains virtually no giant planets in long orbits.

Weiss’ plan consisted of carrying out observations on the ground, with the Keck Observatory, to expand the search for 63 stars similar to the Sun, around which Kepler had already discovered 157 small planets. Using the method of measuring radial velocity (the gravitational wobble caused by planets in the star as they rotate around it), the group discovered 13 planets similar to Jupiter in long orbits in the sample, in addition to eight other worlds the size of Neptune and three stars companions.

The catalog is exciting because it begins to point to systems analogous to the solar, and there is a suspicion among astronomers that the presence of a giant world like Jupiter could have an important effect on the habitability of planets like Earth, for example, by throwing asteroids with its gravity. and comets rich in water and organic compounds into the system, thereby promoting the existence of life.

Weiss and his colleagues’ work has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series after a long and complicated journey. As if the ten years of data collection were not enough, there was a controversy with the list of authors, which originally included Geoffrey Marcy – an astronomer who fell into disgrace in 2015, after allegations of sexual harassment and harassment. In the revised article, he will not appear as one of the authors, and his contribution, relating only to the beginning of the project, will be mentioned in the recognition section.

This column is published on Mondays in print, in Folha Corrida.

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