[X] My Assistant

[volcanopele]

The Looking Ahead Article was posted last week:

http://www.ciclops.org/view/6828/Rev151?js=1

One of the more interesting highlights is an observation of HD189733, which is host to a Jupiter-sized exoplanet. The observation on July 23 was designed for VIMS to detect a transit by that planet across the disc of its parent star. Another observation on July 24 would look at the secondary eclipse, when the planet passes behind the star.

The observation from July 23 is on the ground and the raw images are on the JPL raw images page.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/rawi...?imageID=240711

This is one of many frames taken. HD189733 is the brightest star in the image in the upper left quadrant of the frame. The two bright stars in the upper right quadrant are (from left to right) TYC 2141-1146-1 and HD345464.

[akuo]

Are we going to gather some new information about the exoplanet by observing from a vantage point far away from Earth?

[Frank Crary]

Are we going to gather some new information about the exoplanet by observing from a vantage point far away from Earth?

I believe the idea was to get IR spectra, at wavelengths unavailable from the ground, to give some information on the composition of the exoplanet's atmosphere. That's much more difficult than just detecting the transit, and I think this was actually done as a proof of concept.