Small Planet, Small Star

Astronomers discovered an extrasolar planet only three times more massive than our own, nor the smallest observed orbiting a normal star. The star itself is not large, perhaps as little as one twentieth of the mass of our sun, suggesting that the research team that often relatively low-mass stars can be good candidates for hosting Earth-like planets.

Does Ange by David Bennett of the University of Notre Dame, the international research team presented its findings at a press conference Monday, 2 June 2008, at 11:30 CDT clock at the American Astronomical Society Meeting in St. Louis, Missouri.

"Our discovery shows that even the lowest mass stars may host planets," says Bennett. "No planet yet found orbiting stars with masses less than 20 percent higher than that of the sun, but this finding suggests that even the smallest stars can host planet."

The astronomers used a technique called micro-lensing effect to find the planets, a method that can potentially planet, one tenth the mass of our own.

The gravitational constant Microlensing system, which came from Einstein's general theory of relativity, based on observations of stars, brighten when an object such as another star passing directly in front of them (relative to an observer, in this case the earth). The gravity of the passing star acts as a lens, much like a huge magnifying glass. If a planet orbiting the star gone, his presence is evident in the way of the background star brightens. A complete explanation of the art follows this release.

"This discovery shows the sensitivity of the Microlensing method to find low-mass planets, and we hope to discover the first Earth-mass planet in the near future," said Bennett.

Use of standard nomenclature, the Star-hosting of the newly discovered planet is synchronized MOA-2007-BLG-192L with MOA indication of the observatory, 2007 has been designated the Year of Microlensing event occurred, BLG stands for "Bulge, 192, indicating the Microlensing observation of the 192nd MOA this year and the L-lens with an indication of the stars in contrast to the background of other star in the distance. The planet has the name, but adds a provision letter it as an additional item in the star's solar system, says MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb.

MOA-2007-BLG-192L lives 3000 light years away and is available as a low-mass star burning hydrogen, an enabling nuclear reactions in its core business as our sun does, or a brown dwarf, an object like a star even without the mass to get Nuclear reactions in its core. The researchers were unable to confirm the category of the star fits in the nature of the observations and the margin of error.

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Bennett was one of the pioneers in the use of micro-lens effect to demonstrate low mass planets. He has worked with employees around the world to find a number of planets, the increasingly closer in size to our own.

For the latest discovery, the research staff took advantage of two international cooperation Telescope: Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics (MOA), which includes Bennett, and the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE).

Researchers in New Zealand from the first measurements of the new planet and its star with the new MOA-II telescope on Mt. John Observatory. The observatory is MOA-CAM3 camera, in an observation, can capture an image of the sky 13 times larger than the area of the full moon. Researchers in Chile made follow-up observations with high angular resolution adaptive optics images at the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory. The data from the observations was analysed by scientists around the world hailing from five continents.

"This discovery is very exciting because it means, Earth-mass planets can form around low-mass stars, are very common," said Michael Briley, astronomer and NSF officer who supervises the Bennett's. "It is a further important step in the search for Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of other stars, and it would not have been possible without the international cooperation between professional and amateur astronomers dedicated to measure these signals.