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First Exoplanet Visible Light Spectrum

posted by takyon on Thursday April 23 2015, @12:59AM   
from the exophoton dept.

AnonTechie writes:

The European Southern Observatory's HARPS spectrograph has detected visible light from the exoplanet 51 Pegasi b:

Astronomers using the HARPS planet-hunting machine at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile have made the first-ever direct detection of the spectrum of visible light reflected off an exoplanet. These observations also revealed new properties of this famous object, the first exoplanet ever discovered around a normal star: 51 Pegasi b. The result promises an exciting future for this technique, particularly with the advent of next generation instruments, such as ESPRESSO, on the VLT, and future telescopes, such as the E-ELT.

The exoplanet 51 Pegasi b lies some 50 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus. It was discovered in 1995 and will forever be remembered as the first confirmed exoplanet to be found orbiting an ordinary star like the Sun. It is also regarded as the archetypal hot Jupiter—a class of planets now known to be relatively commonplace, which are similar in size and mass to Jupiter, but orbit much closer to their parent stars.

• Re:what are the ultimate limits? Re:what are the ultimate limits? (Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Thursday April 23 2015, @03:23AM

  by frojack (1554) on Thursday April 23 2015, @03:23AM (#174190) Journal

  Well, according to TFA, its a big planet much closer to its sun:

  It is also regarded as the archetypal hot Jupiter — a class of planets now known to be relatively commonplace, which are similar in size and mass to Jupiter, but orbit much closer to their parent stars.

  So it might just be a spec of light, maybe only a few pixels.

  Also, It would seem to me that we are probably getting close to the point of being able send a prob 51 light years away. We wouldn't be able to control it so it would have to be pretty autonomous, and we would probably need ion engines or some such, nuclear power sufficient for two or three hundred years, massive shielding, huge antennas, and hope we still have the technology to receive its signal in the distant future.

  --
  No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.

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• Re:what are the ultimate limits? (Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Thursday April 23 2015, @08:25AM

  by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday April 23 2015, @08:25AM (#174224) Journal

  hope we still have can invent the technology to receive its signal in the distant future.

  FTFFG (For Future Generations)

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