All posts tagged: observations

PoET telescope makes first observations in exoplanet research

PoET telescope makes first observations in exoplanet research

Published by skeptic

The Paranal solar ESPRESSO Telescope (PoET) will collect sunlight and redirect it to ESO’s ESPRESSO instrument, which will obtain highly detailed spectra of both the entire Sun and specific regions such as sunspots. These observations will be key to understanding the ‘noise’ that similar features in other stars introduce in observations aimed at detecting exoplanets around them. PoET, installed at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Paranal site in Chile, has made its first observations. The telescope will work with ESO’s ESPRESSO instrument to study the Sun in detail. Described as a solar telescope for planet hunters, PoET aims to understand how the variation in the light from stars like the Sun can mask the presence of planets orbiting them, helping us in our search for worlds outside the Solar System. PoET’s main telescope, seen above being lowered into its dome, has a 60-cm mirror. PoET also has a second smaller telescope that collects light from the entire disc of the Sun. “One of the greatest challenges for the detection of other Earths orbiting other Suns …

JWST observations reveal massive helium clouds escaping from exoplanet WASP-107 b

JWST observations reveal massive helium clouds escaping from exoplanet WASP-107 b

Published by Jenni Sidey

Astronomers from the University of Geneva, working with colleagues in Canada and the United States, have captured the clearest view yet of an exoplanet losing its atmosphere into space. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers observed vast clouds of helium escaping from the planet WASP-107 b. Their findings were published in Nature Astronomy and modeled using tools developed at the University of Geneva and the National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS. The observations offer rare insight into atmospheric escape, a process that shapes how planets change over time. While Earth loses only a small amount of gas each second, planets that orbit close to their stars can lose their atmospheres far more quickly. This loss can alter a planet’s size, chemistry, and long-term survival. WASP-107 b orbits a small, cool star more than 210 light-years away. It completes one orbit every 5.72 days, placing it far closer to its star than Mercury is to the Sun. The intense heat drives gas high into space, where it can escape the planet’s gravity. Light curve …