APOD: TYC 8998-760-1: Multiple Planets a... (2020 Aug 18)

[APOD Robot]

TYC 8998-760-1: Multiple Planets around a Sun Like Star

Explanation: Do other stars have planets like our Sun? Previous evidence shows that they do, coming mostly from slight shifts in the star's light created by the orbiting planets. Recently, however, and for the first time, a pair of planets has been directly imaged around a Sun-like star. These exoplanets orbit the star designated TYC 8998-760-1 and are identified by arrows in the featured infrared image. At 17 million years old, the parent star is much younger than the 5-billion-year age of our Sun. Also, the exoplanets are both more massive and orbit further out than their Solar System analogues: Jupiter and Saturn. The exoplanets were found by the ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile by their infrared glow – after the light from their parent star was artificially blocked. As telescope and technology improve over the next decade, it is hoped that planets more closely resembling our Earth will be directly imaged.

<< Previous APOD

This Day in APOD

Next APOD >>

[heehaw]

Our civilization has recently detected the Higgs boson, and determined its mass to be 125 GeV. My question: in our Galaxy, how many other civilizations have ever done the same? (Anyone care to speculate ? )

[Boomer12k]

They laughed at me... even in science class in college... for believing in other planets....

Now we got a picture of it... Now who is laughing?

:---[===] *

[Boomer12k]

Our civilization has recently detected the Higgs boson, and determined its mass to be 125 GeV. My question: in our Galaxy, how many other civilizations have ever done the same? (Anyone care to speculate ? )

Maybe those guys who keep visiting???.... um... SINCE we are speculating....and it is not "scientifically proven"... you understand.

:---[===] *

[orin stepanek]

To travel between stars? I'm horrified by the distance! I'm not ready to believe in interstellar travel! Nice to dream about though.

[Ann]

TYC8998_ESO_960.jpg


To travel between stars? I'm horrified by the distance! I'm not ready to believe in interstellar travel! Nice to dream about though.

I agree wholeheartedly, Orin!

Ann

[BDanielMayfield]

The system orbiting TYC 8998-760-1 is very different than ours.

There are two giant exoplanets orbiting the star. The ESO Very Large Telescope photographed the two planets using its SPHERE instrument, producing the first direct image of multiple planets orbiting a Sun-like star.[1][6]

TYC 8998-760-1 b has a mass 14 times that of Jupiter, and a radius of 3 RJ. It orbits at a distance of 162 AU (2.42×1010 km; 1.51×1010 mi), or slightly more than 5 times the Neptune-Sun distance.[5][7]

TYC 8998-760-1 c has a mass of 6 MJ, and orbits at 320 AU (4.8×1010 km; 3.0×1010 mi), or slightly more than 11 times the Neptune-Sun distance.[5]

The object labeled b might not even be a true planet. It is over the 13 Jupiter lower mass limit for brown dwarfs.

A brown dwarf is a type of substellar object that has a mass between those of the heaviest gas giant planets and the least massive stars, i.e. about 13 to 75–80 times that of Jupiter (MJ),[1][2] or about 2.5×1028 kg to 1.5×1029 kg. Below this range are the sub-brown dwarfs (sometimes referred to as rogue planets), and above it are the red dwarfs. Brown dwarfs may be fully convective, with no layers or chemical differentiation by depth.[3]

Unlike the stars in the main sequence, brown dwarfs are not massive enough to sustain nuclear fusion of ordinary hydrogen (1H) to helium in their cores. They are, however, thought to fuse deuterium (2H). If their mass is > 65 MJ they may also fuse fuse lithium (7Li).[2] It is also debated whether brown dwarfs would be better defined by their formation processes rather than by their nuclear fusion reactions.[4]

[neufer]

Our civilization has recently detected the Higgs boson, and determined its mass to be 125 GeV. My question: in our Galaxy, how many other civilizations have ever done the same? (Anyone care to speculate ? )

Maybe those guys who keep visiting???.... um... SINCE we are speculating....and it is not "scientifically proven"... you understand.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

The only way to make certain is to radio broadcast a message like... say:

• 'Person, woman, man, camera, TV':

and to see if we get the appropriate response:

• 'Person, woman, man, camera, TV':

(We'll give them extra points if they get the order correct.)

[Case]

So I take it that the other dots are confirmed to not be planets of that system then? Background stars or artefacts?

Very cool, ESO team!

[Sa Ji Tario]

Boomer, I also suffered the same and did not depart from this passion. -
Orin, we will not travel, let the light as our messenger

[BDanielMayfield]

So I take it that the other dots are confirmed to not be planets of that system then? Background stars or artefacts?

Very cool, ESO team!

I think that bystander may have posted an article on this (although I couldn't find it just now) on The Communications Center: Breaking Science News page, (or I may have seen it elsewhere), but I recall reading that the other dots on the image where in the background.

It begs the question though, how can they be sure about that?

[bystander]

I think that bystander may have posted an article on this (although I couldn't find it just now) on The Communications Center: Breaking Science News page, (or I may have seen it elsewhere), but I recall reading that the other dots on the image where in the background.

viewtopic.php?t=40811

[DYNAMITESERVICE]

How far away is this star?

[johnnydeep]

TYC8998_ESO_960.jpg


To travel between stars? I'm horrified by the distance! I'm not ready to believe in interstellar travel! Nice to dream about though.

I agree wholeheartedly, Orin!

Ann

With which part(s)? Being horrified by the distance; not yet believing in the possibility of interstellar travel; or that it's still nice to dream about?

All of us on earth are already de facto interstellar travelers, blithely on our merry way away from some stars and toward others, all from the comfort of our home couches

Oh, and in preparation for tomorrow's APOD topic "How will humanity first discover extraterrestrial life", here's a great 25 minutes from the Cool Worlds channel on YouTube discussing galactic colonization:

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[johnnydeep]

Our civilization has recently detected the Higgs boson, and determined its mass to be 125 GeV. My question: in our Galaxy, how many other civilizations have ever done the same? (Anyone care to speculate ? )

Maybe those guys who keep visiting???.... um... SINCE we are speculating....and it is not "scientifically proven"... you understand.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

That's a great 5 minutes from Tyson - thanks! Does this guy ever consult from notes? He seems to always be winging it, but he's still so damn coherent and convincing. Very smart guy...

[bystander]

How far away is this star?

TYC 8998-760-1: Multiple Planets around a Sun Like Star

Explanation: ... the star designated TYC 8998-760-1 ...

TYC 8998-760-1 is a young star, about 17 Ma old, located 310 light years away in the constellation of Musca, with a mass 1.00±0.02 times the Sun.

[johnnydeep]

The system orbiting TYC 8998-760-1 is very different than ours.

There are two giant exoplanets orbiting the star. The ESO Very Large Telescope photographed the two planets using its SPHERE instrument, producing the first direct image of multiple planets orbiting a Sun-like star.[1][6]

TYC 8998-760-1 b has a mass 14 times that of Jupiter, and a radius of 3 RJ. It orbits at a distance of 162 AU (2.42×1010 km; 1.51×1010 mi), or slightly more than 5 times the Neptune-Sun distance.[5][7]

TYC 8998-760-1 c has a mass of 6 MJ, and orbits at 320 AU (4.8×1010 km; 3.0×1010 mi), or slightly more than 11 times the Neptune-Sun distance.[5]

The object labeled b might not even be a true planet. It is over the 13 Jupiter lower mass limit for brown dwarfs.

A brown dwarf is a type of substellar object that has a mass between those of the heaviest gas giant planets and the least massive stars, i.e. about 13 to 75–80 times that of Jupiter (MJ),[1][2] or about 2.5×1028 kg to 1.5×1029 kg. Below this range are the sub-brown dwarfs (sometimes referred to as rogue planets), and above it are the red dwarfs. Brown dwarfs may be fully convective, with no layers or chemical differentiation by depth.[3]

Unlike the stars in the main sequence, brown dwarfs are not massive enough to sustain nuclear fusion of ordinary hydrogen (1H) to helium in their cores. They are, however, thought to fuse deuterium (2H). If their mass is > 65 MJ they may also fuse fuse lithium (7Li).[2] It is also debated whether brown dwarfs would be better defined by their formation processes rather than by their nuclear fusion reactions.[4]

The whole subject of sub stellar mass objects is extremely interesting to me. Heck, it's ALL interesting: the range of planet-like objects, the range of star-like objects, and stellar evolution. Hmm - you never hear much about planetary evolution. Why not? I guess because we only have 8 or so examples to study, and those are all "stuck" in time at about 4.5 billion years old.

[bystander]

So I take it that the other dots are confirmed to not be planets of that system then? Background stars or artefacts?

TYC 8998-760-1: Multiple Planets around a Sun Like Star

Explanation: ... featured infrared image ...

... The two planets are visible as two bright dots in the centre (TYC 8998-760-1b) and bottom right (TYC 8998-760-1c) of the frame, noted by arrows. Other bright dots, which are background stars, are visible in the image as well. By taking different images at different times, the team were able to distinguish the planets from the background stars. ...

[Grizzly]

Do we know the inclination of the system relative to ours? Are we looking at it roughly from a polar view of the star?

[C0ppert0p]

I always find it tempting to imagine that images like these are actual planetary or stellar disks. How large would the telescope need to be to actually resolve a planetary disk, about three Jupiter radii, from a distance of 95 pc, in visible or IR, light.I know the math is there, I just don't know what it is

[MarkBour]

This is a fantastic image, which I think will be regarded as an historic accomplishment in astronomy. Way to go, ESO! Thanks for posting it. Also, there is so much good information in the linked articles, I hope I have enough time to go read them in the next few days. Thanks, RJN !

[orin stepanek]

Boomer, I also suffered the same and did not depart from this passion. -
Orin, we will not travel, let the light as our messenger

I don't want to talk to them via light! I want a Star Trek Universe!

[MarkBour]

I always find it tempting to imagine that images like these are actual planetary or stellar disks. How large would the telescope need to be to actually resolve a planetary disk, about three Jupiter radii, from a distance of 95 pc, in visible or IR, light.I know the math is there, I just don't know what it is

Interesting question. You're making me think about the region around the star in the image. It looks a lot like bubbling brown gravy. Given the information that the inner of the two detected planets (TYC 8998-760-1 b) is about 160 AU away from the star, this region appears to be visible in this image out to at least 100 AU, and perhaps more. Is this in fact an infrared image of a protoplanetary disk? Within this region there is a particular band, approximately horizontal in the image, and I wonder what it signifies. It could be indicating the pole of the star, if these are regions that are more heated due to the existence of polar jets.

(I should caution that the above is very speculative, and the musings of an amateur.)

[orin stepanek]

TYC8998_ESO_960.jpg


To travel between stars? I'm horrified by the distance! I'm not ready to believe in interstellar travel! Nice to dream about though.

I agree wholeheartedly, Orin!

Ann

With which part(s)? Being horrified by the distance; not yet believing in the possibility of interstellar travel; or that it's still nice to dream about?

All of us on earth are already de facto interstellar travelers, blithely on our merry way away from some stars and toward others, all from the comfort of our home couches

Oh, and in preparation for tomorrow's APOD topic "How will humanity first discover extraterrestrial life", here's a great 25 minutes from the Cool Worlds channel on YouTube discussing galactic colonization:

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Simple; as of now the distance makes it an impossibility for trekking! Takes away the imaginary! If you believe in exploration by being there! Like someday we will on Mars!

[johnnydeep]

This is a fantastic image, which I think will be regarded as an historic accomplishment in astronomy. Way to go, ESO! Thanks for posting it. Also, there is so much good information in the linked articles, I hope I have enough time to go read them in the next few days. Thanks, RJN !

I'm always amused by the random links to cute cat pics, like the one on the word "hoped" in the sentence "As telescope and technology improve over the next decade, it is hoped that planets more closely resembling our Earth will be directly imaged."