EAS134 Is Earth Unique The Search for Extrasolar Planets

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EAS-134 Is Earth Unique?The Search for
Extrasolar Planets
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Transit Photometry
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Distance of planets from star
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Distance of planets from solar system
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Comparison of 4 extrasolar planets with their
estimated HZs
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Location of some extrasolar bodies
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Arecibo Observatory, Costa Rico
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Arecibo Observatory, Costa Rico
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Arecibo Observatory, Costa Rico
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European Space Agencys (ESA) Very Large
Telescope (VLT)

• summit of the 2,600-m high Cerro Paranal in
  the Atacama Desert (Chile)
• VLT is composed of four 8.2-m Unit Telescopes
• operated every night in the year
• designed with interferometry as a major goal
• interferometer combines starlight captured by
  two 8.2- VLT Unit Telescopes with two 1.8 m
  optical dishes (AT1 March 2004, AT2 Feb 2005)
  
• increases spatial resolution and shows fine
  details of a large variety of celestial objects

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The impressive ensemble at the summit of Paranal.
From left to right, the enclosure of VLT Antu,
Kueyen and Melipal, AT1, the VLT Survey Telescope
(VST) in the background, AT2 and VLT Yepun.
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ESO Press Release, 14 March 2005

• The "First Fringes" obtained with the first two
  VLTI Auxiliary Telescopes, as seen on the
  computer screen during the observation.
• The fringe pattern arises when the light beams
  from the two 1.8-m telescopes are brought
  together inside the VINCI instrument.
• The pattern itself contains information about the
  angular extension of the observed object, here
  the 6th-magnitude star HD62082.

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Interferometry with AT1 and AT2

• the fringes are acquired by moving a mirror back
  and forth around the position of equal path
  length for the two telescopes.
• rows 1 and 2 are the spectrum of the fringe
  pattern signal
• row 3 one scan of the interference pattern from
  the last two rows
• rows 4 and 5 the photometric signals (from an
  optical telescope) used for calibration
• rows 6 and 7 the raw interferometric signals

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Proxima Centauri observed with VLT
This object is cool and red and it is brighter on
the near-infrared image (in the I-filter at 900
nm) to the left than on the red image (in the
R-filter at 600 nm) to the right. The rapid
motion is easy to perceive.
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spectra observed of the inner and outer regions
of the discs around three young stars, HD 163296,
HD 144432 and HD 142527 (black lines)- there
are clear spectral differences between the inner
and outer regions, indicating a difference in
mineralogy- a general broadening of the
spectral "mountain" in the inner discs indicates
the presence of crystalline silicates
Imaging proto-solar disks
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some VLT implications

• An important conclusion from the VLTI
  observations is therefore that the building
  blocks for Earth-like planets are present in
  circumstellar discs from the very start
• This is of great importance as it indicates that
  planets of the terrestrial (rocky) type like the
  Earth are most probably quite common in planetary
  systems, also outside the solar system
• the long-period comets that sometimes visit us
  from the outer reaches of our solar system are
  truly pristine bodies, dating back to an era when
  the Earth and the other planets had not yet been
  formed
• studies of such comets, especially when performed
  in-situ, will therefore provide direct access to
  the original material from which the solar system
  was formed.

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New high-mass planet / low-mass star?

• comparison between the newly found low-mass star
  OGLE-TR-122b and the Sun and Jupiter.
• OGLE-TR-122b, while still 96 times as massive as
  Jupiter, is only 16 larger than this giant
  planet.
• It weighs 1/11th the mass of the Sun and has
  1/8th of its diameter

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New high-mass planet / low-mass star?
Announced 5 March 2005
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VLT discovery GQ Lupi B (b) - image
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VLT discovery GQ Lupi B (b) - astronometry
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VLT discovery GQ Lupi B (b) - spectrum