"major" extrasolar planet discovery by Hubble Options

[dtolman]

Hubble may be on the blink, but the data analysis and discoveries roll on:

Hubble Announces A Major Extrasolar Planet Discovery


WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a Science Update to report on a significant discovery about planets orbiting other stars at 2:30 p.m. EST, Thursday, Nov. 13, in NASA's James E. Webb auditorium. This unique discovery, made by the Hubble Space Telescope's Advance Camera for Surveys instrument, also will be featured in the Nov. 14 issue of the journal Science.

The briefing participants are:
-- Ed Weiler, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington
-- Sara Seager, associate professor of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
-- Paul Kalas, assistant adjunct professor, Physics and Astronomy Department, University of California at Berkeley.
-- Mark Clampin, James Webb Space Telescope Observatory project scientist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
-- Marc Kuchner, exoplanet scientist, Astrophysics Science Division, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Reporters attending the event will have an opportunity to ask questions. News media representatives not attending will be able to ask questions via teleconference. To participate in the teleconference, reporters must email a request for dial-in information that includes their media affiliation and telephone number to J.D. Harrington at j.d.harrington@nasa.gov by 1 p.m. EST, Nov. 13.

[dtolman]

Feel stupid replying to myself... but I can't resist. I bet they're announcing a planet around Fomalhaut. Hope I'm not stealing anyone's thunder if I'm right

[volcanopele]

Good guess me thinks. Looking at the research interests of the panelists, we got someone interested in transiting planets, another interested in circumstellar disks, and another interested in possible white dwarf planets. A transiting planet around a white dwarf + circumstellar disk

[Hungry4info]

We've also been following this story here:
http://solar-flux.forumandco.com/extrasola...hubble-t164.htm

We may have got the possible discovery reduced down to a list of possible star systems, based on looking at what the ACS has been targeted at over the length of this year

I bet they're announcing a planet around Fomalhaut.

That wouldn't make much sense. As the instrument was the ACS, it's most likely transit related. Fomalhaut's circumstellar disk is inclined at a non-transiting angle. If planets are forming in the Fomalhaut system, they should be at the same inclination as the disk, as observed at Eps Eri.

A transiting planet around a white dwarf

Oohh... that's really unlikely. The chances of a planet transiting its star drop quickly with distance from the star. White dwarfs used to be giants, so no short-period planets are expected to exist around white dwarfs. Any planets orbiting white dwarfs would likely have long periods and large separations, making observing them in transit extremely difficult. Another factor is the diameter of the star. White dwarfs aren't exactly large, making the chances of finding a transiting planet around them even smaller. Though, if a gas planet "transits" a white dwarf, it would be more like an eclipse. White dwarf just disappears, so it would be really obvious.

I'm not saying that either of these cases are impossible though. It would really brighten my day if one of these turned out to be the discovery.

[belleraphon1]

Thanks for posting.... I'll be watching this for sure....

Just been navigating through the exoplanet encyclopedia at http://exoplanet.eu/... excellent site...

Kuchner has co-authored several papers regarding white dwarf stars and exozodiacal dust including a rebently puplished paper entitled "The Detectability of Exo-Earths and Super-Earths Via Resonant
Signatures in Exozodiacal Clouds" http://fr.arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0810/0810.2702v1.pdf

Seager has co-authored many papers regarding super-earth class planets as well as theorectical modeling of mass-raduis relationships for exoplanets... see "MASS-RADIUS RELATIONSHIPS FOR SOLID EXOPLANETS"
http://fr.arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0707/0707.2895v1.pdf

Kalas has many co-authored papers regarding debris disks around other stars..

Clampin, ditto on circumstellar dust creation...

Being this is a Hubble ACS discovery I would put my money on something to do with debris disks and exoplanet detection.

For those interested goto http://fr.arxiv.org/abs/0808.2754 and use the search engine on the upper right ...
input a name or subject to navigate through the astrophysics catalog of papers... I find this a wonderful resource...

Craig

[Vultur]

Well, we have lots of exoplanets, so it's got to be something unique - not "just" another hot Jupiter. It says "a significant discovery about planets orbiting other stars" - maybe some new information on how they're formed? A complex solar system like our own? A potential life-bearing world?

[Pavel]

Maybe a double planet? Just a wild guess.

[dtolman]

That wouldn't make much sense. As the instrument was the ACS, it's most likely transit related. Fomalhaut's circumstellar disk is inclined at a non-transiting angle. If planets are forming in the Fomalhaut system, they should be at the same inclination as the disk, as observed at Eps Eri.

Hi,
Reason I mention Fomalhaut, is that Paul Kalas's main project with the HST is the Fomalhaut Deep Field. It is also his only listed research project with the HST for extrasolar planets. He presented during 2005 about his observations of it (Evidence for A Planetary System Sculpting Fomalhaut's Dust Belt ). Perhaps this is a new discovery based off a pre-2008 observation campaign?

Addendum - also Paul Kalas has done previous observing campaigns for planets (technically "sub-stellar companion") using the ACS coronagraph. I assume this is based off an observation run he made post 2005.

Daniel

[Fran Ontanaya]

Maybe something about ring systems around many exoplanets.

[Guest_Enceladus75_*]

Well, with the detection of planets around other stars pretty much routine these days, it has to be something special, like:

The smallest planet yet found so far - maybe down to Earth size or a bit larger;

The detailed composition of an extrasolar planet's atmospere or maybe even surface;

The transit of a small extrasolar planet, or

The first detection of a large moon of an extrasolar planet.

[Vultur]

I assume it can't be anything REALLY earth-shattering (a world emitting radio messages or something ) or they'd be lining up the world media.

[imipak]

IIRC the ACS has seen rings, i.e., a disk where the central area has presumably been cleared by orbiting bodies. Would it be able to image a ring system with two or more cleared zones?

[Del Palmer]

Perhaps this is a new discovery based off a pre-2008 observation campaign?

Unless we're talking SBC, then the observations would have to predate Jan 2007, when ACS/WFC and HRC stopped working. If we are talking SBC, my guess would be lifetimes of disks (SBC has been very busy observing photoevaporation effects on disks).

[Juramike]

How about a transiting "exothingy" deeply embedded in a circumstellar disk?

Something early on in the process of clearing out it's zone. [And no further comment from me regarding definitions]
I'd think that'd be a pretty huge discovery.

-Mike

[nprev]

I think any sort of exoplanet-related detection by HST is always pretty major, and it'll be of great interest to enthusiasts such as ourselves. However, as always, be prepared to be underwhelmed... ...doubt that whatever it is will be of much interest to the mass media.