US EditionUC Irvine Researchers Add some Clarity to Search for Extraterrestrial Life
ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, JUL 14 – Research reveals over 200 exoplanets are larger than previously measured, affecting estimates of Earth-like worlds and guiding future telescope observations, UC Irvine astronomers say.
- On Monday, July 14, UC Irvine astronomers reported that over 200 exoplanets are likely larger than previously thought, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
- Mixing of host and background stars causes TESS's low angular resolution to lead to underestimated planetary radii, causing measurement contamination.
- Paul Robertson said, "We're basically measuring the shadow of the planet," while the team remeasured about 200 TESS-exoplanets with custom software, finding many are larger than previously thought.
- Next, Te Han and his team plan to reexamine planets previously deemed uninhabitable, while Robertson cited the importance of prioritization for follow-up observations with the James Webb Space Telescope.
- Implications suggest many exoplanets may be water worlds or gas giants, implying a reevaluation of habitability criteria for distant worlds.
13 Articles
13 Articles
HWO Could Find Irrefutable Signs Of Life On Exoplanets
Searching for habitable exoplanets will require decades of work, new technologies, and new ideas. A lot of that effort seems to coalescing around the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), a proposed mission expected to launch in the early 2040s that would be capable of directly imaging potentially habitable worlds, and, importantly, detecting features about them that could prove whether or not they host life as we know it. A new paper by exobiolog…
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UC Irvine researchers add some clarity to search for extraterrestrial life
Depending on how you look at it, UC Irvine doctoral candidate Te Han and his adviser, Paul Robertson, just made an already unimaginably difficult job – finding and observing planets outside our solar system – a lot harder or a lot more accurate. Either way, what both men insist they didn’t do is transmogrify into the bane of exoplanet researchers everywhere – “planet killers” – people whose work dents or even erases work that might bring humanit…
Many exoplanets are larger than previously thought, a new study shows. This could have far-reaching consequences for the search for life in the universe.
Scores of exoplanets may be larger than realized
In new research, University of California, Irvine astronomers describe how more than 200 known exoplanets are likely much larger than previously thought. It's a finding that could change which distant worlds researchers consider potential harbors for extraterrestrial life.
Many Exoplanets Discovered by NASA's TESS Satellite Could Be Larger Than Expected
The radius of a planet is a crucial factor in understanding its composition and characteristics. Accurate radius measurements are generally obtained by analyzing the percentage of starlight blocked as the planet transits its host star. NASA’s Transit Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has identified hundreds of new exoplanets; however, its low angular resolution can lead to [...] The post Many Exoplanets Discovered by NASA’s TESS Satellite Could …
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