|
|
Case Astronomers go Planet Hunting
Posted 31-Aug-2006
|
Astronomers at Case,
along with collaborators at Youngstown State University and the
National Optical Astronomy Observatories, are using Case's Burrell
Schmidt telescope atop Kitt Peak to survey a large field of stars in
the constellation of Cygnus in a search for new extrasolar planets.
The star field will be continually monitored during the month of
September 2006, in the hopes of finding planetary "transits" -- the
tell-tale dip in the light output of a star when an orbiting planet
passes in front. Our survey will be sensitive to massive planets
orbiting close to their parent stars -- the so called "hot Jupiters".
|
|
Along
with the hunt for planets, the survey will be invaluable for studying
the intrinsic variability of stars, and act as a ground-based
pre-cursor for the Kepler mission, a satellite telescope set to be
launched in 2008 to search this same field of the sky for smaller,
Earth-like planets orbiting the stars.
Will we find any planets? Data analysis will like take several months,
but stay tuned and find out!
|
|
