Super Planet Found By NASA’s Kepler: Exoplanet Found Too Hot For Life

Super Planet Found By NASA’s Kepler: Exoplanet Found Too Hot For Life

NASA’s Kepler spacecraft mission measures 2.5 times the diameter of the earth and has a close, 9 day orbit wherein it revolves around a star which is smaller in size and cooler in temperature than the solar system’s Sun.

Super Earth Found

This is Kepler’s first exoplanet discovery. This exoplanet is situated at a distance of 180 light years from earth. Lead scientist Andrew Vanderburg from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics located in Cambridge, Massachusetts made a perusal of the publicly available data obtained by the spacecraft at the time of the test of the new K2 mission in the month of February 2014.

Planet HIP 116454b’s Presence Confirmed

The planet named HIP 11654b is of a massive size and has a closer orbit of just 9 days making the planet too hot for life and human habitation. HIP 11645b and its star are located at a distance of 180 light years from earth, near the constellation Pisces.

The confirmation of this discovery was given following the measurements taken by HARPS-North spectrograph of the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo located in the Canary islands. The spectrograph obtained data indicating the wobble of the star caused by the gravitational tug of the planet as it orbits it.

HARPS-N demonstrated that the planet weighs around 12 times as much as earth and it is a super planet, a classification which does not exist within our solar system. The super-planet discovery was made following the re-modification and formulation of Kepler for its fresh mission. “Last summer, the possibility of a scientifically productive mission for Kepler after its reaction wheel failure in its extended mission was not part of the conversation,” Paul Hertz, NASA’s astrophysics division director at the NASA headquarters was quoted as saying.

“Today, thanks to an innovative idea and lots of hard work by the NASA and Ball Aerospace team, Kepler may well deliver the first candidates for follow-up study by the James Webb Space Telescope to characterise the atmospheres of distant worlds and search for signatures of life,” Dr. Hertz also added.

K2 Mission

Since the K2 mission officially commenced in the month of May, 2014, more than 35,000 stars have been observed by it. Data was collected on star clusters plus dense star forming regions and numerous planetary objects within the current solar system. A research paper on the newest discovery of this mission has been accepted in The Astrophysics Journal for publication.

Kepler Rises From The Ashes

In the month of May 2013, NASA’s exoplanet Kepler faced its share of challenges. 2 of the 4 wheels stabilising its telescope malfunctioned. But the discovery of the super Earth is now the crowning glory of this mission. "To paraphrase Mark Twain, the report of the Kepler spacecraft's death was greatly exaggerated,” a Harvard-Smithsonian Center For Astrophysics statement about the discovery read. It also stated that “HARPS-N showed that it weighs almost 12 times as much as Earth. This makes HIP 116454b a super-Earth, a class of planets that doesn't exist in our solar system.” K2 was born of NASA’s quest to keep the USD 600 million Kepler useful and alive.

Water World

The average density of the planet indicates that it is a water world or a mini Neptune with an extended gaseous atmosphere. It is probably composed of three-fourths water and one-fourth rock.

How Kepler Scripted a Comeback

Loss of the reaction wheels was creating a problem wherein telescope needs at least 3 wheels to maintain a fixed eye on far ranging stars. Kepler works by observing these stars and and documenting “transits” or light flickers occurring when planets pass in front of the starlight.

Another stabiliser is needed for keeping the eye fixed-which was what scientists associated with K2 put forth. The pressure of sunlight was used to set off an ad hoc reaction wheel. "If properly positioned, the spacecraft can be balanced against the pressure much as a pencil can be balanced on your finger," NASA said.

Conclusion

Kepler’s remarkable rebirth and recent discoveries point to how effectively scientists can troubleshoot and create solutions. This form the core of the ingenuity of researchers at NASA.