Data from the NASA / Esa Kepler Space Telescope continues to offer astronomers the opportunity to discover new planets. This is the case of Michelle Kunimoto, an astronomy student at the University of British Columbia, who has just added another 17 planets to the range of 4,776 candidate planets confirmed thanks to Kepler.
“This is a great discovery and definitely one that I’m really excited about, ” Kunimoto said.
As described in The Astronomical Journal , Kunimoto conducted an independent search of some 200,000 stars observed in Kepler’s initial mission that lasted four years (between 2009 and 2013), and found evidence of planets “in transit” through said stars.
“All the data is publicly available,” said the student. “I was able to access a file on the Internet where all the data is available and I just downloaded it.”
The young woman used the transit method to find the planets, one of the most common methods to ‘hunt’ planets. “Every time a planet passes in front of a star, it blocks a part of the light from that star and causes a temporary decrease in the brightness of the star, “Kunimoto said in a statement. “By finding these dives, known as transits, you can begin to gather information about the planet, such as its size and how long it takes to orbit.”
Thus he discovered 17 new planetary candidates.
What are exoplanets like?
Of the 16 of the new planets discovered, the smallest is only two-thirds the size of Earth, one of the smallest planets identified by Kepler. The rest vary in size up to eight times the size of the Earth. Yes indeed; one of the planets located by Kunimoto is especially rare. Officially named KIC-7340288 b , this planet is 1.5 times the size of Earth, small enough to be considered rocky, rather than gaseous like the giant planets of the solar system, and is also in the habitable zone. from its star, where the planet’s surface temperatures could allow liquid water to form.
The planet’s year is 142.5 days long, and it orbits its star at 0.444 Astronomical Units, practically the orbit that Mercury makes – a little larger – with respect to our Sun and receives approximately a third of the light that the Earth receives. of the sun.
“Obviously, this has important implications for the search for signs of life. If confirmed, it will be one of the rarest planets we have found so far,” Kunimoto clarifies.
Their findings are currently considered planet candidates, which means they must undergo additional verification to be considered confirmed planets, something that will require more time and research.
It was not his first planetary discovery
Kunimoto’s discovery was not her first, as she had previously found four planets, and in future research, she and her colleagues hope to conduct independent searches for data from other missions, such as Kepler’s K2 tracking and the Exoplanet study satellite. most recent transit.
How many more Earth-like planets will there be out there?
Referencia: Michelle Kunimoto, Jaymie M. Matthews, Henry Ngo. Searching the Entirety of Kepler Data. I. 17 New Planet Candidates Including One Habitable Zone World. The Astronomical Journal, 2020; 159 (3): 124 DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/ab6cf8
