Showing posts with label 51 Pegasi b. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 51 Pegasi b. Show all posts

Thursday, October 6, 2016

We are (probably) not alone! First exoplanet discovered 1995

 
Artist's depiction of exoplanet 51 Pegasi b


October 6, 1995, European scientists Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz announced the discovery of a planet orbiting another star.  Planet 51 Pegasi b is about half the size of Jupiter and a "year" is just four Earth days.  And it orbits its sun 51 Pegasi at a distance of 0.05 AU (astronomical units) which is about 1/6 the distance between Mercury and our sun.  That means the surface temperature is around a sultry 2-3000 Kelvin.

In the 21 years since, over 1800 exoplanets have been discovered, including (perhaps) Tatooine, Vulcan and Krypton.


How to find Star 51 Pegasi

http://zebu.uoregon.edu/51peg.html
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4674
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2015-312