A New Search for Extrasolar Planets from the Arecibo Observatory

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

A New Search for Extrasolar Planets from the Arecibo Observatory

A New Search for Extrasolar Planets from the Arecibo Observatory:

Image credit: PHL @ UPR Arecibo/Aladin Sky Atlas

The National Science Foundation’s Arecibo Observatory and the Planetary Habitability Laboratory of the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo joined the Red Dots project using the ESO’s exoplanet-hunter in the search for new planets around our nearest stars. This new collaboration will simultaneously observe in both the optical and radio spectrum Barnard’s Star, a popular star in the science fiction literature.

Barnard's star is a low-mass red dwarf almost six light-years away and the second-closest stellar system to our Sun after the Alpha Centauri triple-star system. There are hints of a possible super-Earth mass planet in a cold orbit around this star.

The Arecibo Observatory has a new campaign to observe nearby red dwarf stars with planets. The purpose of this campaign is to detect radio emissions from these stars, such as from flares, to help characterize their radiation and magnetic environment and any potential perturbations due to other bodies. These perturbations might reveal the presence of new sub-stellar objects including planets.

Barnard’s Star will be the eighth red dwarf star to be recently observed by the Arecibo Observatory. Results from Gliese 436, Ross 128, Wolf 359, HD 95735, BD +202465, V* RY Sex, and K2-18 are currently being analyzed. These observations are led by Prof. Abel Méndez, Director of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory of the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo in collaboration with Dr. Jorge Zuluaga from the Universidad de Antioquia in Colombia.

The Red Dots team will be joining the observations with the Arecibo Observatory of Barnard’s Star in coordination with other observatories. They are planning simultaneous photometric and spectral observations from SNO, LCO, TJO, and CARMENES from Spain, and earlier with ASH2 from Chile. All these observations will be used to understand the star but more observations using the ESO’s exoplanet-hunter by the Red Dots team will be necessary for the detection and confirmation of any new planet.

The first extrasolar planets were discovered from the Arecibo Observatory in 1992. They were three small planets named Draugr, Poltergeist, and Phobetor around the Lich Pulsar, a fast rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation. The first planet around a sun-like star was later discovered in 1995 and today we know of more than 3,500 of them. Recent observations by the Arecibo Observatory have been able to detect brown dwarfs, but no new planet yet.

The first and only time that Barnard’s Star was observed from the Arecibo Observatory was during the SETI Institute’s Phoenix Project (1998-2004). The new observations are in a different frequency (4 to 5 GHz) where radio emission from stellar flares have been observed in other similar or cooler objects. This is the first time Barnard’s Star is seen with such frequencies and sensitivity.

The observations of Barnard’s Star will take place on Sunday, July 16. Another star, Ross 128, will be observed again later that day because it showed potential radio emissions that require follow-up. Results from these observations will be available later that week. The Red Dots team keeps an open journal of their observational campaign.

Credit: phl.upr.edu

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the United States government agency responsible for the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958 with a distinctly civilian (rather than military) orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29, 1958, disestablishing NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency became operational on October 1, 1958.

UFO SIGHTINGS PHOTO PHOTOGRAPHY

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a UFO as "An unidentified flying object; a 'flying saucer'." The first published book to use the word was authored by Donald E. Keyhoe. The acronym "UFO" was coined by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, who headed Project Blue Book, then the USAF's official investigation of UFOs. He wrote, "Obviously the term 'flying saucer' is misleading when applied to objects of every conceivable shape and performance. For this reason the military prefers the more general, if less colorful, name: unidentified flying objects. UFO (pronounced Yoo-foe) for short." Other phrases that were used officially and that predate the UFO acronym include "flying flapjack", "flying disc", "unexplained flying discs", "unidentifiable object", and "flying saucer". The phrase "flying saucer" had gained widespread attention after the summer of 1947. On June 24, a civilian pilot named Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine objects flying in formation near Mount Rainier. Arnold timed the sighting and estimated the speed of discs to be over 1,200 mph (1,931 km/h). At the time, he described the objects' shape as being somewhat disc-like or saucer-like, leading to newspaper accounts of "flying saucers" and "flying discs". In popular usage the term UFO came to be used to refer to claims of alien spacecraft. and because of the public and media ridicule associated with the topic, some investigators prefer to use such terms as unidentified aerial phenomenon (or UAP) or anomalous phenomena, as in the title of the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP).

UFO PHOTO PHOTOGRAPHY

UFO - Unidentified Flying Object An unidentified flying object, or UFO, in its most general definition, is any apparent anomaly in the sky that is not identifiable as a known object or phenomenon. Culturally, UFOs are associated with claims of visitation by extraterrestrial life or government-related conspiracy theories, and have become popular subjects in fiction. While UFOs are often later identified, sometimes identification may not be possible owing to the usually low quality of evidence related to UFO sightings (generally anecdotal evidence and eyewitness accounts). Stories of fantastical celestial apparitions have been told since antiquity, but the term "UFO" (or "UFOB") was officially created in 1953 by the United States Air Force (USAF) to serve as a catch-all for all such reports. In its initial definition, the USAF stated that a "UFOB" was "any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object." Accordingly, the term was initially restricted to that fraction of cases which remained unidentified after investigation, as the USAF was interested in potential national security reasons and/or "technical aspects" (see Air Force Regulation 200-2). During the late 1940s and through the 1950s, UFOs were often referred to popularly as "flying saucers" or "flying discs". The term UFO became more widespread during the 1950s, at first in technical literature, but later in popular use. UFOs garnered considerable interest during the Cold War, an era associated with a heightened concern for national security. Various studies have concluded that the phenomenon does not represent a threat to national security nor does it contain anything worthy of scientific pursuit (e.g., 1951 Flying Saucer Working Party, 1953 CIA Robertson Panel, USAF Project Blue Book, Condon Committee).

Photos of Nature | Nature Photography What is The Universe

Photos of Nature | Nature Photography What is The Universe

Tuesday, July 25, 2017