exoplanet tagged posts

WASP167bKELT13b. Credit: Image courtesy of Keele University

Researchers led by a team at Keele University have discovered a new ‘Hot Jupiter’ exoplanet. The new giant planet was jointly discovered by a WASP/KELT survey collaboration, marking the first time an exoplanet has been discovered between two planet search groups. The exoplanet, WASP-167b/ KELT-13b, is several times more massive than Jupiter and orbits its parent star every two days. Its host star, WASP-176/KELT-13, is one of the hottest and most rapidly rotating stars known to host such a planet.

The Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) and the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) exoplanet surveys observed the host star between 2006 and 2013 using the WASP-South telescope and the KELT-South telescope at the South African ...

Planet 9 was most likely stolen by our sun 4.5 billion years ago. Credit: Image courtesy of Lund University

Through a computer-simulated study, astronomers at Lund University in Sweden show that it is highly likely that the so-called Planet 9 is an exoplanet. This would make it the first exoplanet to be discovered inside our own solar system. The theory is that our sun, in its youth some 4.5B yrs ago, stole Planet 9 from its original star.

“It is almost ironic that while astronomers often find exoplanets hundreds of light years away in other solar systems, there’s probably one hiding in our own backyard,” says Alexander Mustill, astronomer at Lund University. Stars are born in clusters and often pass by one another...

An artist’s conception of an exoplanet courtesy of NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech. Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

Planet-hunting is an ongoing process that’s resulting in the discovery of more and more planets orbiting distant stars. New work reports on a technological upgrade for one method of finding planets or confirming other planetary detections. One of the most-popular and successful techniques for finding and confirming planets the radial velocity method. It takes advantage of the fact that the planet’s gravity also affects the star in return. As a result, astronomers are able to detect the tiny wobbles the planet induces as its gravity tugs on the star. Using this method, astronomers have detected hundreds of exoplanets.

For certain kinds of low-mass stars, however, there are limitations to ...