Press conference March 23

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

I've always wanted to learn more about 47 Ursae Majoris.

That star is a bit brighter than our sun. Their gas giant is to their star system what the asteroid belt is to ours--closer to their sun than Jupiter is to ours. But--due to the brighter sun, the fact that the gas giant is closer (and can act as a reflector) the effective insolation distance of a Europa- like moon may be closer to Mars in intensity.

The gas giant reflects the stars brighter light on a (hypothetical) moon surface (say with atmo' like Titan and water like Europa)...and...hmmm.

Where did you hear it was about 47 Ursae Majoris? I'm eagerly anticipating this announcement. Bit strange they're announcing it a full week ahead of time.

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My Astrophotographs

Well they have to give people enough time so that someone will show up for it. :P

I'm very much looking forward to what they're going to say.

Given that exoplanets have pretty much become an accepted fact of life, the fact that they're calling a press conference means they've got something really oddball.

Maybe a clear picture, or a true Jupiter analog? Here's hoping.

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I'm not completely heartless, the doctor who removed it told me he'd never be able to get it all.

Is Spitzer powerful enough to detect planets directly?

I suspect they have seen compelling evidence of planets around stars with circumstellar disks. Beta Pictoris or Epsilon Eridani perhaps.
Or brown dwarf planets like 2M1207 b.

Spitzer is in the infrared, so I doubt it's going to be a visual confirmation, unless it's of a brown dwarf type star. Unless I'm mistaken, most planets reflect more light than they reradiate in the infrared.

I also don't know of any prominent absorption lines Spitzer could be looking at in the infrared to be able to do doppler shift detections, or know of any lines for imortant elements.

So I'm still puzzled but exhilarated to see what comes of this.

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My Astrophotographs

I don't have a link, but I got an email from NASA that the Spitzer Science Update is changed to today, March 22nd, at 3 p.m. EST.

Youre right, NASA TV live events page has been updated.

And thanks, I would have missed it!

Spitzer is great !!

I look forward to ESA's Corot and NASA's Kepler


we might even see a joint TPF - Darwin mission of the future

just a little speculation, put an object like Venus or Mars next to our Sun and what happens when you view them from Alpha Centauri. Not much, unless you've got a super scope, because the brightness ratio and power of the Sun will kill any chance of looking at these objects in the visible specturm.
However put a Planet like Earth's specturm in the Infra-red and suddenly that 10 billion to one ratio for Stars that outshine plnets in Sol like systems will drop way down.

Trying to catch infra-red specturm peaks from Super-Earth's is the way to go. The Europeans with ESO might build OWL, plus we can look forward to Darwin and NASA's TPF. We will send space telescopes up to look at the infrared spectra of extra solar planets, it may be a tiny point of light in a space telescope, but with super exposures of 42 days long we might be able to analyse the planets, check the atmosphere

can we find ET

Planets are much easier to detect in infrared, because the brightness difference between the star and the planet is much smaller. If I remember correctly, Jupiter is a billion times dimmer than the Sun in visible light, but in infrared light Sun is only something like tens of thousands of times brighter. And even less in the case of young planets which are still hot.

Furure telescopes like Terrestrial Planet Finder are being designed to operate in infrared light. Only very ambitious missions like Planet Imager use visible light.

It's now live on NASA tv.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

Oh well. Old news. :roll:

It's cool and all; however, for all the hoopla, I can't but feel cynical and say, it seems like a ploy to steal some thunder or publicity from Hubble and try to get the focus on Spitzer and the future (assuming they aren't cancelled) telescope missions.

Is it just me, or is this announcement that monumental? Maybe I have MER "WATER ON MARS" announcements still stuck in my head.

CJSF

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Two years ago moved from my town
I was looking up past the city lights
But the city lights got in my way

See the constellation ride across the sky
No cigar, no lady on his arm
Just a guy made of dots and lines

-from "See The Constellation"
by They Might Be Giants

Press release: NASA's Spitzer Marks Beginning of New Age of Planetary Science

Artist's concept:


Feature

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Well, direct detection is much better than indirect detection. But these planets are already known to transit their stars so they are known much better than other extrasolar planets. But fine discoveries anyway, now they can try to detect the spectra of the planets.

Yes, it is TWO detections using eclipsing binary star formalism applied
to a planet. It does work much better in the IR. First light, if you will,
from an extrasolar planet.

I think they said it was leaked by New Scientist, so they had to move
up the announcement.

I think the real puzzler to come out of this was the evidence for HD 209458b having something like 30x the diameter of Jupiter. That should provoke some head scratching for the near term.

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http://cleardarksky.com/c/Vancouvercs0.gif

Yes, I don't know how "monumental" it is, but I think it is a very interesting
result.

I believe a panelist said that one of the planets measured out to about
800 C, a hot Jupiter indeed. The other appears anomolously big, like about
30-40 Jupiter diameters, which was unexpected. So you CAN find out
new information looking at the light from these things.

The scientist meant 30-40 percent larger. And that was already known, from its transit curve.