A team of astronomers has located over 100 celestial bodies that could very well be previously unknown exoplanets.
A team of astronomers has located over 100 celestial bodies that could very well be previously unknown exoplanets.
One is even kind of close to home, orbiting a star that is a mere 8.1 light years from here.
A University of Hertfordshire press release notes, "Gliese 411b is a hot super-Earth with a rocky surface located in the fourth nearest star system to the Sun, making it the third nearest planetary system to the Sun. The significance of its discovery demonstrates that virtually all the nearest stars to the Sun have planets orbiting them. Planets that could be like Earth."
The international group made the observations by utilizing the radial velocity method.
The Carnegie Institution for Science notes that the means, “is one of the most successful techniques for finding and confirming planets. It takes advantage of the fact that in addition to a planet being influenced by the gravity of the star it orbits, the planet’s gravity also affects the star. Astronomers are able to use sophisticated tools to detect the tiny wobble the planet induces as its gravity tugs on the star.”
They applied it to decades of data gathered by HIRES, a spectrometer affixed to the Keck-1 telescope at W.M. Keck Observatory.
In addition to releasing their findings, the team publicized a staggering amount of the information the apparatus has collected over the years.
