Exoplanet News

This article provides updates to the February 22, 2017 discovery of an immensely interesting solar system. The seven planets orbit a red dwarf star named Trappist-1.

This is an update about what scientists now know about that system, five years after the discovery. Interesting read, if you like that sort of thing.

https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/news/1699/day-of-discovery-7-earth-size-planets/

Another source that keeps a list of all the confirmed exoplanets that have been discovered as well as providing searchable information for any you desire to read more about:

https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/discovery/exoplanet-catalog/

You may be surprised to keep up with this and see how fast the list grows! New planets are being discovered with regularity, and that will certainly explode with growth once the Webb Space telescope is fully functional. Not only will scientists be able to discover new exoplanets, but they will even be able to find out the chemical makeup of any atmospheres that may exist.

Here is a fairly recent NASA article highlighting just how the Webb Space Telescope will help in exoplanet research:

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/webb-exoplanet-research

@liljo said
Here is a fairly recent NASA article highlighting just how the Webb Space Telescope will help in exoplanet research:

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/webb-exoplanet-research

Sadly we'll never visit any of them but really cool stuff.

@wildgrass said
Sadly we'll never visit any of them but really cool stuff.

Oh yeah, I totally agree with that. The universe is just Way, Way, WAY too big.

I've spent many hours of my life quietly contemplating "are we alone?" I was a big UFO fan as a child. Got into amateur astronomy in my teenage years, and have just been awed by the stars and planets for so very long.

Early into my astronomy days, when I learned about astronomical units, and light years, etc., I quickly lost any thoughts of "visitors" from other planets. I fully believe there is life elsewhere. I even believe it can be "found" with a high degree of certainty. But I definitely believe, if there are other intelligent lifeforms, creation is almost specifically designed to keep them from making contact with each other--at least physical contact.

On the other hand, while mankind is woefully lacking in its ability to travel THERE...perhaps there is some intelligent life form that we know not of that could find and come to us...

(There I go...Started this post, then took a few hits before finishing it...) 🙄

Not very long ago, exoplanets were being discovered that were up to 25 times the mass of Jupiter. As methods and equipment improved, scientists began finding much smaller worlds, some very similar in size to Earth. A new record smallest planet has been discovered this month. AND it is in its star's "habitable zone." A small portion of an article published by Astronomy.com yesterday:

"A new addition
In a study published Feb. 10 in Astronomy & Astrophysics, astronomers announced the discovery of Proxima d. This tiny planet, weighing in at just one-quarter the mass of Earth, orbits Proxima Centauri every five days at a distance of some 2.5 million miles (4 million kilometers), or less than one-tenth the distance of Mercury from our own Sun. But because Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf with only about 12 percent the Sun’s mass and 14 percent its diameter, this puts Proxima d in the star’s habitable zone, where conditions are just right for liquid water to potentially exist on its surface.

Proxima d was discovered using the radial velocity method, during which astronomers carefully watch a star to look for subtle changes in position, which occur as the gravity of an orbiting planet tugs on its star. This is the same method used to detect Proxima Centauri’s other two planets, Proxima b and c. But these planets are more massive — in fact, Proxima d is the lightest exoplanet to date ever discovered using this method."

@Liljo
A planet 25 X Jupiter mass seems to me would stretch the idea of a brown dwarf, still too small a mass to kick start fusion.

@sonhouse
One of the first exoplanets found. It is about twice the size of Jupiter, but has 25 times the mass.

On a side note, I am quite the collector of optics. I have seven pairs of binoculars, ranging from 7x50 to 25x100 (tripod required). I also own two small refractor telescopes, one which travels very well. All of my binoculars are primarily used for terrestrial viewing, but both my 12x25 and 25x100 are a lot of fun to use in stargazing. I certainly will never see any exoplanets with my equipment, but astronomy on any level is a lot of fun.

I enjoy country living under dark skies.

@Liljo

We can't go there and if they have the technology to come here it will be like Columbus and the Indians except this time we are the Indians.
(I stole that line from the movie "Battleship" ...I think 🤔)

Anyways...
If they come it will be for resources.

@contenchess said
@Liljo

We can't go there and if they have the technology to come here it will be like Columbus and the Indians except this time we are the Indians.
(I stole that line from the movie "Battleship" ...I think 🤔)

Anyways...
If they come it will be for resources.

I would have thought that any civilisation capable of inter stellar travel would be able to gather whatever resources they required without travelling light years to an insignificant planet in a minor solar system.

@contenchess said
@Liljo


Anyways...
If they come it will be for resources.

In fact what kind of resources would that be that would not be more easily available on uninhabited planets?

The growth in discovery of exoplanets has been something to behold. Just think when the Webb gets operational!

In 2020--228 exoplanets were discovered.
In 2021--394 were discovered.
In 2022--so far 27 have been discovered.

In news a lot closer to Earth, researches at Caltech and NASA believe more than ever that there is a 9th planet, located far away in the Kuiper Belt, on a very highly elliptical orbit. If interested, try entering "Planet Nine 2022 News" into your favorite browser.

@Liljo
The bad part about red dwarf's is they are not nice tame stars like ours.
Ours shoots out corona discharges that can kill satellites but the blasts from dwarf stars are significantly stronger than our tame sun.
I think it is the result of having lost a lot of the mass that star enjoyed early on and fusion does keep on and keeps changing the mass, lowering the mass slowly over billions of years.
Then it seems to me the inner core of a star that is as old as a red dwarf, in our sun all the Firey stuff going on in our sun is mostly contained by the thick layer of goo that is the outer layers of the sun.
I think those outer layers shield us from the holy terror of what is going on in the core.
You don't want to be anywhere NEAR that core and that mass in a red dwarf is more of a significant percentage of the total mass of the star, having run out mainly of hydrogen and now is running through the last of the available fusion reactions, going up the periodic chart. When it gets to iron, fusion ceases completely and then it very gradually just cools down.
That means those planets are bombarded maybe daily with a blast from the parent star and suppose it is what, a thousand years into our future and we have spacecraft fast enough to get there in our lifetimes and they may find sterile planets where life never had a chance to evolve because when a natural biological experiment happens, and something more complex comes together, a blast of X rays and such from the parent star tears the molecule bonds apart and they go back to being just hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and the like or maybe water molecules and carbon.

Just my take on what we might find if we ever get humans that far from home.

@venda said
I would have thought that any civilisation capable of inter stellar travel would be able to gather whatever resources they required without travelling light years to an insignificant planet in a minor solar system.

Ya I guess you're right 🤔

@ponderable said
In fact what kind of resources would that be that would not be more easily available on uninhabited planets?

You're right too 🤔

I've been watching too many movies.