NASA’s Chandra Finds Baby Exoplanet is Shrinking
A star unleashes a dam of radiographs which causes a planet in a narrow orbit to move away from an astonishing rhythm, according to a new study using data from the X -ray observatory of Chandra of NASA and described in our latest press release. A team of researchers determined that this planet will go the size of Jupiter to a small sterile world.
This graph provides a visual representation of what astronomers is thinking about around the star (known as you 1227) and a planet which orbit it to a fraction at the distance between the mercury and the sun. This “baby” planet, called you 1227 B, is about 8 million years old, about a thousand times younger than our sun. The main panel is a concept of an artist who shows the planet the size of the size of Jupiter (bottom left) around you 1227, which is a slight red star. Powerful X -rays from the surface of the star tear the atmosphere from the planet, represented by the blue tail. The X -rays of the star can possibly completely eliminate the atmosphere.
The team used new data from Chandra – seen in the insert – to measure the quantities of X -ray from you 1227 that strike the planet. Using computer models of the effects of these radiographs, they concluded that they would have a transformative effect, quickly eliminating the atmosphere of the planet. They believe that the planet loses a mass equivalent to an atmosphere of the earth complete approximately every 200 years.
The researchers used different data sets to estimate the age of you 1227 b. A method exploits the measures of the way in which the host star of you 1227 B moves in space compared to populations close to stars with known ages. A second method compared the brightness and surface temperature of the star with theoretical models of evolving stars. The very young age of you 1227 B makes it the second youngest planet ever observed by passing in front of his host star (a so-called transit). Previously, the planet had been estimated by others at around 11 million years old.
Of all the exoplanets, astronomers have found with less than 50 million years, you 1227 B stands out for the longest year and the host planet with the lowest mass. These properties and the high dose of X -rays which in fact receives an exceptional target for future observations.
An article describing these results has been accepted as a publication in the astrophysical journal and pre -impression is available here. The authors of the article are Attila Varga (Rochester Institute of Technology), Joel Kastner (Rochester Institute of Technology), Alexander Binks (University of Tubingen, Germany), Hans Moritz Guenther (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Simon J. Murphy (New South Wales Canberra University).
The Marshall Space Flight Center of NASA in Huntsville, in Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The X-ray center of Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls the scientific operations of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
Find out more about the Chandra’s radiography observatory and its mission here:
https://chandra.si.edu
This version presents an illustration by an artist of a planet the size of the size of the size of the size in orbit around a slight red star. An image of insert, showing the star in radiographic light of Chandra, is superimposed above the illustration in our upper left corner.
In our top right, the red star is illustrated as a ball made of intense fire. The planet, slightly smaller than the star, is indicated at the bottom left. Powerful X -rays of the star tear the atmosphere from the planet, flowing from the strands of material from the surface of the planet in the opposite direction of the star. This gives the planet a slight resemblance to a comet, with a tail.
The data on Chandra X -rays, presented in the image of insert, shows the star like a small purple orb on a black background. Astronomers used Chandra data to measure the amount of X -ray striking the planet of the star. They believe that the planet loses a mass equivalent to the atmosphere of the earth complete about every 200 years, which ultimately made him shrink the size of Jupiter to a small sterile world.
Megan Watzke
Chandra X X -ray center
Cambridge, mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu
Corinne Beckinger
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
Corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov
