Undergraduates discover planet.

Undergraduates discover planet.

www.space.com

Three undergraduate students have discovered a large planet orbiting a fast-rotating star. Extra-solar planet discoveries like this have become common, but this one is unusual both for who found it and the type of star it orbits.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I think its incredible that 3 undergraduate students were able to discover a new planet roughly 5 times the size of Jupiter, just by studying the light fluctuations of a star.

Every 2.5 days the light from the star would dim... leading to the discovery of a planet orbiting this fast rotating star.

So... if 3 amateurs can discover a planet this large outside of the solar system, what makes everyone so sure that we've discovered everything there is to see in our own solar system?

How can we be so sure that a Planet X with a largely elliptical orbit indeed does not exist?

If anything... this article should give you an idea of how great things can be accomplished by the most unlikely of people. Now go out and cure aids!

www.space.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

If our view is angular to either pole of a star, there would be no evidence of a planet passing by to dim the light. This seems a very primitive way to find planets.

reply to post by Anomen



Amateur astronomers discover a LOT of things. We have more time to look, don't have to wait for our "turn" at telescopes, use eyes at the eyepiece instead of eyes looking at computer monitors. Amateurs also provide TONS of data to the pros. I spent 8 years taking sunspot data for the AAVSO. Every day the Sun was out. Made well over 1,000 observations.

That is why there is the utilization of gravity fluctuations that is the radial velocity method to detect planets for this kind of stars.

[edit on 8/12/08 by peacejet]

Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
If our view is angular to either pole of a star, there would be no evidence of a planet passing by to dim the light. This seems a very primitive way to find planets.

Is there a better way? Dimming light and planetary wobble are about all we've got at this point to find planets. Hubble scientists got lucky with formalhaut being able to image the planet but until Kepler goes on line this is the best we can do.