ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PRESS INFORMATION NOTE
Ref.: PN 08/19 (NAM 10)
Issued by RAS Press Officers:
Dr Robert Massey
Tel: +44 (0)20 7734 3307 / 4582
Mobile: +44 (0)794 124 8035
E-mail: rm(at)ras.org.uk
Anita Heward
Tel: +44 (0)1483 420904
Mobile: +44 (0)7756 034243
E-mail: anitaheward(at)btinternet.com
NATIONAL ASTRONOMY MEETING PRESS ROOM (31 MARCH - 4 APRIL ONLY):
Tel: +44 (0)2890 975262
975263
975264
NAM 2008
http://nam2008.qub.ac.uk
Royal Astronomical Society
http://www.ras.org.uk/
CONTACT DETAILS ARE LISTED AT THE END OF THIS RELEASE
RAS PN 08/19 (NAM 10) (EMBARGOED): CHANCE OF FINDING EARTHLIKE PLANETS
ON THE 'RISE' AS UK ASTRONOMERS DEPLOY NEW CAMERA
Using a revolutionary new camera, UK astronomers have a real chance of
being the first to find Earth-like planets around other stars. PhD
student Neale Gibson of Queen's University Belfast will present the
first results from the RISE instrument in his talk on Wednesday 2 April
at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in Belfast.
RISE is a new fast camera designed by astronomers at Queen's University,
Belfast (QUB) in collaboration with Liverpool John Moores University and
is now installed on the 2m Liverpool Telescope on the Canary Island of
La Palma.
Since the early 1990s, astronomers have found more than 200 planets in
orbit around stars other than our Sun (so-called 'extrasolar' planets).
These have been detected through two techniques that are particularly
sensitive to massive planets in orbit close to their parent star.
Firstly, planets can be found through their gravitational pull on the
star they orbit - as the extrasolar planet moves the star wobbles back
and forth. By measuring this movement astronomers can deduce the
presence of a planet. Secondly, the transit search technique looks for
the dip in brightness of a star as a planet passes in front of it.
However, neither of these techniques is currently good enough to find
small extrasolar planets similar to the Earth. So far most of those
found are so-called 'hot Jupiters' - large gas giant planets very close
to their parent star.
The RISE camera is primarily designed to find Earth-mass planets in
orbit around stars already known to host hot Jupiters. With RISE,
scientists will search for extrasolar planets using a technique called
transit timing, which may provide a short cut to discovering Earth-like
planets with existing technology.
Transit timing works on the principle that an isolated hot Jupiter
planet orbiting its host will have a constant orbital period (i.e. its
'year' remains the same) and therefore it will block out the light from
its parent star in a regular and predictable way. During the planet's
transit events, RISE can very accurately measure the rise and fall in
the amount of light reaching the Earth from the parent star - the camera
can be used to pinpoint the time of the centre of the event to within 10
seconds.
By observing and timing their transits, astronomers hope to detect small
changes in the orbital periods of known hot Jupiters caused by the
gravitational pull of other planets in the same system. In the right
circumstances, even planets as small as the Earth could be found in this
way.
Gibson comments, 'The potential of transit timing is the result of some
very simple physics, where multi-planet systems will gravitationally
kick one another around in their orbits - an effect often witnessed in
our own Solar System. If Earth-mass planets are present in nearby orbits
(which is predicted by current Hot-Jupiter formation theories) we will
see their effect on the orbit of the larger transiting planets.'
'RISE will allow us to observe and time the transits of extrasolar
planets very accurately, which gives us the sensitivity required to
detect the effect of even small Earth-mass planets'.
FURTHER INFORMATION INCLUDING IMAGES
Images of extrasolar planets and RISE camera
http://star.pst.qub.ac.uk/~ng/pics.shtml
Neale Gibson, Queen's University Belfast - more information on RISE
project and transit timing
http://star.pst.qub.ac.uk/~ng
RISE camera
http://star.pst.qub.ac.uk/swasp/Rise_Commissioning_Photos.htm
http://telescope.livjm.ac.uk/Info/TelInst/Inst/RISE/index.php
Liverpool Telescope home page
http://telescope.livjm.ac.uk
http://telescope.livjm.ac.uk/Info/TelInst/Inst/RISE/index.php (and RISE
pages)
RAS National Astronomy Meeting
http://nam2008.qub.ac.uk
RAS home page
http://www.ras.org.uk
NOTES FOR EDITORS
RISE is supported by The Queen's University of Belfast, Liverpool John
Moores University, the Science and Technology Facilities Council and
Prof John Meaburn of The University of Manchester.
The Liverpool Telescope is operated on the island of La Palma by
Liverpool John Moores University in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque
de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias with
financial support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council.
The RAS National Astronomy Meeting (NAM 2008) is hosted by Queen's
University Belfast. It is principally sponsored by the RAS and the
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). NAM 2008 is being held
together with the UK Solar Physics (UKSP) and Magnetosphere, Ionosphere
and Solar-Terrestrial (MIST) spring meetings.
CONTACT
Neale Gibson
Astrophysics Research Centre
Physics Building
Queen's University Belfast
Belfast BT7 1NN
E-mail: ngibson07(at)qub.ac.uk
Web: http://star.pst.qub.ac.uk/~ng/
Tel: +44 (0)28 9097 2585
