Oases of exoplanets. Solar System Telescope fails

The Kepler space telescope was launched in March 2009 and orbits the Sun every 372.5 days. The telescope's task is to observe the light of approximately 150 thousand stars in order to track the moment when the star "blinks." This means that a celestial body, probably a planet, passed between it and the telescope. By the flickering of a star's light, one can determine the period of revolution of a planet around it, its approximate size and some other characteristics. However, in order to confirm the planetary status of each object, additional observations using other telescopes are needed.

© EPA/NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

First rocky planet

Scientists received the first results of the telescope a few months after its launch. Then Kepler found five potential exoplanets: Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b and 8b - “hot Jupiters” on which life cannot exist.

In August 2010, scientists confirmed the discovery of the first planet in a system with more than one, or rather three, planets orbiting a star - Kepler-9.

When discussing the possibility of the existence of life, astronomers use the expression “life zone” or “habitable zone.” This is the distance from a star at which it is neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on the surface.

Thousands of new planets

In February of that year, scientists released Kepler's 2009 results—a list of 1,235 exoplanet candidates. Of these, 68 are approximately Earth-sized (5 of them in the habitable zone), 288 are larger than Earth, 662 are Neptune-sized, 165 are Jupiter-sized, and 19 are larger than Jupiter. In addition, at the same time it was announced the discovery of a star (Kepler-11) with six planets larger than Earth orbiting it.

In September, scientists reported that Kepler had discovered a planet (Kepler-16b) that orbits a binary star, meaning it has two suns.

By December 2011, the number of exoplanet candidates discovered by Kepler had grown to 2,326, 207 approximately Earth-sized, 680 larger than Earth, 1,181 Neptune-sized, 203 Jupiter-sized, 55 larger than Jupiter. At the same time, NASA announced the discovery of the first planet in the habitable zone near a star similar to the Sun, Kepler-22b. It was 2.4 times the size of Earth. It became the first confirmed planet in the habitable zone.

A little later in December of the same year, scientists announced the discovery of Earth-sized exoplanets, Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, orbiting a star similar to the Sun, although too close to it to fall into the habitable zone.

In January 2013, NASA announced that another 461 new planets had been added to the list of exoplanet candidates. Four of them were not twice the size of the Earth and at the same time were in the life zone of their stars. In April, scientists reported the discovery of two planetary systems in which three planets larger than Earth were in the habitable zone. There were a total of five planets in the Kepler-62 star system, and two in the Kepler-69 system.

The telescope fails...

In May 2013, the telescope’s second of four gyrodynes—devices it needed for orientation and stabilization—failed. Without the ability to hold the telescope in a stable position, it became impossible to continue the “hunt” for exoplanets. However, the list of exoplanets continued to grow as the data accumulated during the telescope’s operation was analyzed. So, in July 2013, the list of potential exoplanets already included 3277 candidates.

In April 2014, scientists first reported the discovery of an Earth-sized planet, Kepler-186f, in the star's habitable zone. It is located in the constellation Cygnus, 500 light years away. Along with three other planets, Kepler-186f orbits a red dwarf star half the size of our Sun.

...but continues to work

In May 2014, NASA announced the continued operation of the telescope; it was not possible to completely repair it, but scientists found a way to compensate for the breakdown using solar wind pressure on the device. In December 2014, a telescope operating in the new mode was able to detect the first exoplanet.

At the beginning of 2015, the number of candidate planets in the Kepler list reached 4,175, and the number of confirmed exoplanets was a thousand. Among the newly confirmed planets were Kepler-438b and Kepler-442b. Kepler-438b is 475 light-years away and 12% larger than Earth, Kepler-442b is 1,100 light-years away and 33% larger than Earth. They orbit in the habitable zone of stars smaller and cooler than the Sun.

At the same time, NASA announced the discovery by Kepler of the oldest known planetary system, 11 billion years old. In it, five planets smaller than Earth orbit the star Kepler-444. The star is a quarter smaller than our Sun and cooler, it is located 117 light years from Earth.

On July 23, 2015, scientists reported a new batch of candidate planets added to the Kepler catalog. Now their number is 4696, and the number of confirmed planets is 1030, among them 12 planets are not more than twice the size of the Earth and are in the habitable zone of their stars. One of them, Kepler 452b, is located 1,400 light-years from Earth and orbits a star that is 4% more massive and 10% brighter than the Sun.

First Interstellar Asteroid Wows Scientists
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Scientists were surprised and delighted to detect --for the first time-- an interstellar asteroid passing through our solar system. Additional observations brought more surprises: the object is cigar-shaped with a somewhat reddish hue. The asteroid, named ‘Oumuamua by its discoverers, is up to one-quarter mile (400 meters) long and highly-elongated—perhaps 10 times as long as it is wide. That is unlike any asteroid or comet observed in our solar system to date, and may provide new clues into how other solar systems formed. For more info about this discovery, visit https://go.nasa.gov/2zSJVWV.

For the first time in the history of astronomical observations, an object of unknown origin has arrived from deep space. People have dreamed about this for hundreds of years, and thousands of science fiction books have been written about such situations.
And now, when humanity has a real chance to learn something new about other star systems not with the help of telescopes, but in situ, it suddenly turns out that no one is ready.

The world's elites were so busy dividing up the surface of planet Earth that they abandoned the space industry long ago. There are no satellites or manned spacecraft on Earth to send them to the alien object for research.

In Russia, despite the victorious reports, Roscosmos is barely keeping the Soviet space exploration afloat. Under Yeltsin, the production of Buranov was liquidated (probably at the urgent request of “our Western partners”).

Well, for the Western elites, consisting of degenerate Satanists and dreaming of establishing a global dystopia with medieval paraphernalia on Earth, space is generally of little interest to them. This is understandable: what kind of space is there when Western elitists are busy taking over the planet, serving black masses in temples, ritual cannibalism and homosexuality? It’s clear that they have no time for the stars.

As a result, a space object of unknown origin will fly away on its own path from the solar system unexplored.

Moreover, it is possible that this object is of artificial origin.
This will generally be a number: humanity dreams of contact with brothers in mind, and then such an opportunity will disappear from under our noses! However, about this

We We won’t know anything for sure.

http://www.vladtime.ru/nauka/619510
Cigar-shaped object with a reddish tint: Scientists have discovered an interstellar asteroid for the first time?
Janusz Sierpneń 11/24/2017

For the first time, NASA was able to detect an interstellar asteroid moving between stars for hundreds of millions of years in the Milky Way and ending up in our Solar System in October. The agency's report refers to an object called 'Oumuamua, which resembles a cigar, has a reddish tint and reaches four hundred meters in length. Previously, bodies of a similar shape had not been found in the Solar System, which gives researchers the opportunity to suggest differences between objects in different galaxies.

Thomas Zuburchen, assistant manager of NASA's Space Mission Directorate in Washington, noted that for decades, different versions of existing interstellar objects have been put forward. And now, for the first time, evidence of this has appeared. Therefore, this fact can be attributed to a historical discovery in a new milestone in research into the formation of stellar galaxies located outside the Solar System.

As soon as this celestial body was noticed in October 2017, the world's main observatories immediately began to monitor it in order to immediately collect as much information as possible about the shape, color and orbit of the discovered body. As a result of observations, scientists concluded that the object apparently consists of stone and metals. There is no water or ice on it, and the surface of the body has a reddish tint due to prolonged exposure to radiation. Such a dense “blanket” transmits heat rather poorly, and therefore the heat of the sun may reach the inner layers of ice only after a long period of time. Therefore, researchers need to continue to observe the cosmic body in order to catch the period of ice melting, as well as the beginning of cracking of this crust.

According to the head of a group of scientists at the Institute of Astronomy from Hawaii, Karen Meech, such uncharacteristic diversity suggests that it is similar to other bodies outside the solar system. She also clarified that the asteroid is not moving at all, since there are no traces of dust around. At the same time, assessing the trajectory, it can be assumed that the cigar-shaped asteroid came into our system from the brightest star in the constellation Lyra - Vega. At first, the body was classified as a comet, but later it turned out that the space object does not have the properties of a comet. NASA also drew attention to the fact that such cosmic bodies theoretically fly through the solar system no more than once a year, but at the same time their parameters are quite small, which is why it was not possible to record them previously.

At the same time, a group of astronomers led by David Jewitt from the University of California, Los Angeles, determined the shape and physical properties of the first ever observed interstellar object in the solar system. Based on their characteristics, a cosmic body with a reddish tint is an elongated cigar-like object with the parameters of half an ordinary city block. Between the stellar comet C/2017 U1 (PANSTARRS), it eventually turned out to be an ordinary asteroid. It was first discovered on October 18 from the PANSTARRS 1 observatory in the United States. Observing the discovered cosmic body, scientists determined its speed of approximately twenty-six kilometers per second along an open hyperbolic trajectory. Moreover, its eccentricity (a numerical characteristic of a conic section - the degree of deviation from the circle) is approximately one point and two tenths. This suggests that a body that appeared from outside will soon leave the Solar System.

Somewhat later, using the VLT telescope of the European Southern Observatory, it was possible to find out that C/2017 U1 is without any signs of coma, without a gas shell near the core and, in all likelihood, is an ordinary asteroid. Then the comet index “C” in the name of the body was changed to the asteroid index “A”, and then to “I” (from interstellar). In addition, the body was named 'Oumuamua, which translates from Hawaiian as “scout” or “messenger from afar.”

Scientists noted that in total they know of 337 long-periodic comets with an orbital eccentricity of more than one. But previously, Oort cloud comets were observed, accelerating to the speed of escape from our system due to gravitational planetary influence or due to asymmetric gas jets that arise when approaching the Sun and melting volatile substances on the surface of these cosmic bodies. Whereas U1 is singled out as a special cosmic body due to its rather high speed - approximately 25 kilometers per second, which is difficult to explain by gravitational perturbations.

On October 28, 2017, the body was observed using the WIYN telescope with a primary mirror diameter of 3.5 meters and placed at the Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona. But even the most powerful telescopes do not allow researchers to determine the details of the surface of asteroids. In this regard, based on the brightness and spectrum, they have to presumably talk about the shape, parameters and surface features of the observed space object. For this purpose, astrophysicists measure the absolute magnitude (H), or rather the apparent magnitude of the stellar body, exactly the one that the object could have based on the assumption of a witness who is removed just by the average radius of the earth's orbit (astronomical unit). Having in advance the approximate reflectivity, albedo, of a similar space object, it is possible to calculate their size. So the absolute magnitude of U1 is in the region of 21.5 or 23.5 with an eight-hour period. Taking this fact into account, the researchers calculated the available corresponding versions of the shape of the space object. As a result, they decided that the body shape was cigar-like with parameters of 230 meters in length and 35 meters in diameter. The approximate density of this “cigar” is quite high, approximately 6 times higher than the density of water - 6 thousand kilograms per cubic meter.

While scientists from the European Southern Observatory and the Institute of Astronomy in Hawaii give a different aspect ratio of 10:1 with a length of more than 400 meters. The object's spectrum is slightly reddish, but not as red as most bodies outside our galaxy, in the Kuiper Belt. This shade is more typical of inner Trojan asteroids.

R. Kotulla (University of Wisconsin) & WIYN/NOAO/AURA/NSF
https://nplus1.ru/news/2017/11/20/interstellar-cigar
Interstellar asteroid 'Oumuamua turned out to be a "cigar" the size of half a block
Sergey Kuznetsov 11/20/2017

Astronomers have determined the shape and physical properties of the first-ever interstellar body to enter the solar system—an elongated, cigar-shaped body the size of half a city block with a reddish tint, according to a paper by a team led by David Jewitt of the University of California, Los Angeles. Angeles, published on the arXiv.org server.

Interstellar comet C/2017 U1 (PANSTARRS), which later turned out to be an asteroid, was first discovered on October 18 by the American PANSTARRS 1 observatory. Further observations of the new object showed that it was moving at a speed of about 26 kilometers per second along an open hyperbolic trajectory, with its eccentricity being about 1.2. This means that the object arrived from outside our planetary system and will soon leave it. Later, additional observations with the European Southern Observatory's VLT telescope showed that C/2017 U1 does not have any signs of a coma - a shell of gas around the core - and is more likely an asteroid. After that, the “comet” index “C” in the name was changed to the asteroid “A”, and then to “I” (from interstellar). In addition, the object received its own name 'Oumuamua, which in Hawaiian can mean "scout" or "messenger from afar."

Jewitt and his colleagues note that a total of 337 long-period comets are known with orbital eccentricities greater than 1 (that is, an open orbit - a parabola), but in each case these were Oort cloud comets that accelerated to escape velocities from the Solar System under the influence of the gravity of planets or asymmetric jets of gas that arise when approaching the Sun and melting volatile substances on their surface. U1 is a special object because its extremely high speed - about 25 kilometers per second - cannot be explained by gravitational perturbations.

The observations were made on October 28, 2017, using the WIYN telescope with a 3.5-meter primary mirror located at the Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona. Even the most powerful telescopes do not allow scientists to see details on the surface of asteroids, so they can only judge their shape, size and surface features based on their brightness and spectrum. To do this, astronomers measure the absolute magnitude (H), that is, the apparent magnitude of an object that it would have from the point of view of an observer removed exactly one astronomical unit (the average radius of the Earth's orbit). Knowing the approximate reflectivity of cosmic bodies of a given type (albedo), we can calculate their size.

An interstellar asteroid through the eyes of an ESO/M artist. Kornmesser

However, a group of scientists from the European Southern Observatory and the Institute of Astronomy in Hawaii gives a slightly different estimate of the size of the object. According to them, it has an aspect ratio of 10 to 1, and a length of about 400 meters. The object's spectrum turned out to be somewhat reddish, but not at all as red as most objects in the outer solar system, in the Kuiper belt. This color is more typical of inner Trojan asteroids. Scientists found no signs of coma, the gaseous shell characteristic of comets. However, they note, this does not exclude the presence of volatile substances and ice on the surface. They may be buried under a thick layer of cosmic dust. This thick “blanket” conducts heat very poorly, so heat from the Sun can only reach the inner layers of ice after a long time. Therefore, astronomers need to continue observing to detect the moment when the melting ice begins to break this crust.

http://ufonews.su/news72/171.htm
Interstellar asteroid 'Oumuamua turns out to be a cigar

Meet "Oumuamua, the first observed interstellar visitor to our solar system
Published: Nov 20 2017
The International Astronomical Union named this strange visitor the name "Oumuamua", which means "Scout of the army" in Hawaiian.

The absolute magnitude of U1 fluctuated from 21.5 and 23.5 with a period of 8 hours, scientists calculated possible body shapes that could correspond to these and came to the conclusion that they correspond to a cigar-shaped body with a length of 230 meters and a diameter of 35 meters. The approximate density of the “guest” turned out to be quite high - about six times the density of water (6000 kilograms per cubic meter). However, a group of scientists from the European Southern Observatory and the Institute of Astronomy in Hawaii gives a slightly different estimate of the size of the object. According to them, it has an aspect ratio of 10 to 1, and a length of about 400 meters.

THIS Just Spotted Leaving Our Solar System!
Published: Nov 22 2017

The object's spectrum turned out to be somewhat reddish, but not at all as red as most objects in the outer solar system, in the Kuiper belt. This color is more typical of inner Trojan asteroids. Scientists found no signs of coma, the gaseous shell characteristic of comets. However, they note, this does not exclude the presence of volatile substances and ice on the surface. They may be buried under a thick layer of cosmic dust. This thick “blanket” conducts heat very poorly, so heat from the Sun can only reach the inner layers of ice after a long time. Therefore, astronomers need to continue observing to detect the moment when the melting ice begins to break this crust.

The main task of the French space station COROT, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in mid-October this year, is to search for possible life on other planets. Using a space telescope with a diameter of 30 cm, it is planned to find several dozen Earth-like planets around distant stars. Then, a detailed study of the discovered objects will be continued by other, more powerful space telescopes, the launch of which is scheduled for the coming years.

The first reliable report of the observation of a planet located near another star came at the end of 1995. Just ten years later, this achievement was awarded the "Nobel Prize of the East" - the award of Sir Run Run Shaw. For the third year, the Hong Kong media mogul is giving away $1 million to scientists who have achieved special achievements in astronomy, mathematics and life sciences, including medicine. The 2005 laureates in astronomy were Michel Mayor from the University of Geneva (Switzerland) and Geoffrey Marcy from the University of California at Berkeley (USA), who received the prize at a ceremony in Hong Kong from the hands of its founder, 98-year-old Mr. Shaw. In the time since the discovery of the first exoplanet, research teams led by these scientists have discovered dozens of new distant planets, with American astronomers led by Marcy accounting for 70 of the first 100 discoveries. In this way, they took a kind of revenge from the Swiss group of Mayor, which in 1995 was two months ahead of the Americans with the report of the very first exoplanet.

Identification technology

The first to see planets near other stars through a telescope was the Dutch mathematician and astronomer Christiaan Huygens back in the 17th century. However, he could not find anything, since these objects are not visible even with powerful modern telescopes. They are located incredibly far from the observer, their sizes are small compared to stars, and the reflected light is weak. And, finally, they are located close to their home star. That is why, when observed from Earth, only its bright light is noticeable, and the dim points of exoplanets simply “drown” in its radiance. Because of this, planets outside the solar system remained unrecognized for a long time.

In 1995, astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz from the University of Geneva, conducting observations at the Haute-Provence Observatory in France, reliably recorded an exoplanet for the first time. Using an ultra-precise spectrometer, they discovered that star 51 in the constellation Pegasus “sways” with a period of just over four Earth days. (The planet, orbiting the star, rocks it with its gravitational influence, as a result of which, due to the Doppler effect, a shift in the spectrum of the star can be observed.) This discovery was soon confirmed by American astronomers Geoffrey Marcy and Paul Butler. Subsequently, another 180 exoplanets were discovered using the same method of analyzing periodic changes in the spectra of stars. Several planets were found using the so-called photometric method - by periodically changing the brightness of a star when the planet is between the star and the observer. It is this method that is planned to be used to search for exoplanets on the French COROT satellite, which is scheduled to be launched in October this year, as well as on the American Kepler station. Its launch is scheduled for 2008.

Hot Neptunes and Jupiters

The first discovered exoplanet resembles Jupiter, but is located very close to the star, causing its surface temperature to reach almost +1,000 ° C. This type of exoplanet, whose mass is hundreds of times greater than that of the Earth, is what astronomers call “hot gas giants” or “hot Jupiters.” In 2004, using advanced spectrometers, it was possible to discover a completely new class of exoplanets, much smaller in size - the so-called “hot Neptunes”, whose mass is only 15-20 times greater than that of the Earth. Reports about this were published simultaneously by both European and American astronomers. And at the beginning of this year, a very small exoplanet was discovered with a mass only 6 times greater than that of the Earth. It is significantly removed from its star, located in the cold region of the planetary system, and therefore should be an “ice giant” similar to Uranus or Neptune. Interestingly, two gas giants had already been discovered near the same star.

The discovery in 1995 of a planet located near star 51 in the constellation Pegasus marked the beginning of an entirely new field of astronomy - the study of extrasolar, or exoplanets. Before this, planets were known only around one star - our Sun. In order to search for planets outside the solar system, astronomers have examined about 3,000 stars over the past decade and found planets near 155 of them. In total, more than 190 exoplanets are now known. Two, three and even four planets have been found near some stars.

Exoplanets discovered to date are located extremely far from our Solar System. The closest star to us (besides our Sun) - Proxima Centauri - is 270 thousand times further than the Sun - at a distance of 40,000 billion kilometers (4.22 light years). The nearest planetary system is 10 light years away, and the most distant one discovered is 20,000. Most exoplanets are tens or a few hundred (up to 400) light years away from us. Every year, astronomers discover about 20 exoplanets. Among them, more and more new varieties are being identified. The “heaviest” is 11 times more massive than Jupiter, and the largest in size has a diameter 1.3 times greater than that of Jupiter.

Where do planets come from?

There is still no reliable theory explaining how planetary systems of stars are formed. There are only scientific hypotheses on this matter. The most common of them suggests that the Sun and planets arose from a single cloud of gas and dust - a rotating cosmic nebula. From the Latin word nebula (“nebula”), this hypothesis was called “nebular.” Oddly enough, it is quite old - two and a half centuries. The beginning of modern ideas about the formation of planets was laid in 1755, when the book “General Natural History and Theory of the Heavens” was published in Königsberg. It belonged to the pen of an unknown 31-year-old graduate of the University of Koenigsberg, Immanuel Kant, who at that time was a home teacher for the children of landowners and taught at the university. It is very likely that Kant got the idea of the origin of planets from a dust cloud from a book published in 1749 by the Swedish mystical writer Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), who hypothesized (according to him, told to him by angels) about the formation of stars as a result of vortex motion substances of the cosmic nebula. In any case, it is known that Swedenborg’s rather expensive book, in which this hypothesis was presented, was bought by only three private individuals, one of whom was Kant. Kant would later become famous as the founder of German classical philosophy. But the book about heaven remained little known, since its publisher soon went bankrupt and almost the entire circulation remained unsold. Nevertheless, Kant's hypothesis about the emergence of planets from a dust cloud - the original Chaos - turned out to be very tenacious and in subsequent times served as the basis for many theoretical arguments. In 1796, the French mathematician and astronomer Pierre-Simon Laplace, apparently unfamiliar with Kant's work, put forward a similar hypothesis of the formation of the planets of the solar system from a gas cloud and gave its mathematical justification. Since then, the Kant-Laplace hypothesis has become the leading cosmogonic hypothesis, explaining how our Sun and planets originated. Ideas about the gas-dust origin of the Sun and planets were subsequently refined and supplemented in accordance with new information about the properties and structure of matter.

Today it is assumed that the formation of the Sun and planets began about 10 billion years ago. The initial cloud consisted of 3/4 hydrogen and 1/4 helium, and the proportion of all other chemical elements was negligible. The rotating cloud gradually compressed under the influence of gravity. The bulk of the matter was concentrated in its center, which gradually became denser to such a state that a thermonuclear reaction began with the release of a large amount of heat and light, that is, a star flared up - our Sun. The remnants of the gas and dust cloud, rotating around it, gradually acquired the shape of a flat disk. Clots of denser matter began to appear in it, which over billions of years “blended” into planets. Moreover, the planets first appeared near the Sun. These were relatively small formations with high density - iron-stone and stone spheres - terrestrial planets. After this, giant planets, consisting mainly of gases, formed in a region more distant from the Sun. Thus, the original dust disk ceased to exist, turning into a planetary system. Several years ago, a hypothesis appeared by geologist Academician A.A. Marakushev, according to which it is assumed that terrestrial planets in the past were also surrounded by extensive gaseous shells and looked like giant planets. Gradually, these gases were carried away to the outskirts of the solar system, and near the Sun only the solid cores of the former giant planets remained, which are now terrestrial planets. This hypothesis echoes the latest data on exoplanets, which are balls of gas located very close to their stars. Perhaps in the future, under the influence of heating and stellar wind flows (high-speed plasma particles emitted by the star), they will also lose powerful atmospheres and turn into twins of Earth, Venus and Mars.

Space panopticon

Exoplanets are very unusual. Some move along highly elongated orbits, which leads to significant changes in temperature, while others, due to their extremely close location to the star, are constantly heated to +1,200°C. There are exoplanets that make a full revolution around their star in just two Earth days, they move so quickly in their orbits. Over some, two or even three “suns” shine at once - these planets revolve around stars that are part of a system of two or three stars located close to each other. Such diverse properties of exoplanets initially stunned astronomers. We had to reconsider many established theoretical models of the formation of planetary systems, because modern ideas about the formation of planets from a protoplanetary cloud of matter are based on the structural features of the Solar system. It is believed that in the hottest region near the Sun, refractory materials remained - metals and rocks, from which terrestrial planets were formed. The gases escaped to a cooler, more distant region, where they condensed into giant planets. Some of the gases that ended up at the very edge, in the coldest region, turned into ice, forming many tiny planetoids. However, among exoplanets, a completely different picture is observed: gas giants are located almost close to their stars. Astronomers intend to discuss the theoretical explanation of these data and the first results of a new understanding of the formation and evolution of stars and planets in early 2007 at an international scientific conference at the University of Florida.

Most discovered exoplanets are giant balls of gas similar to Jupiter, with a typical mass of about 100 Earth masses. There are about 170 of them, that is, 90% of the total. Among them there are five varieties. The most common are “water giants,” so named because, judging by their distance from the star, their temperature should be the same as that of Earth. Therefore, it is natural to expect that they are shrouded in clouds of water vapor or ice crystals. Overall, these 54 cool “water giants” should look like bluish-white balls. The next most common are 42 “hot Jupiters.” They are very close to their stars (10 times closer than the Earth is from the Sun), and therefore their temperature is from +700 to +1,200°C. They are thought to have a brownish-purple atmosphere with dark streaks of clouds made of graphite dust. It is slightly cooler on 37 exoplanets with a bluish-lilac atmosphere, called “warm Jupiters,” whose temperatures range from +200 to +600 ° C. There are 19 “sulfuric acid giants” located in even cooler regions of planetary systems. It is assumed that they are shrouded in a cloud cover of sulfuric acid droplets - such as on Venus. Sulfur compounds can give these planets a yellowish-white color. The already mentioned “water giants” are located even further from the corresponding stars, and in the coldest regions there are 13 “Jupiter twins”, which are similar in temperature to the real Jupiter (from -100 to -200 ° C on the outer surface of the cloud layer) and, probably, look about the same - with bluish-white and beige stripes of clouds, interspersed with white and orange spots of large vortices.

In addition to the giant gas planets, a dozen smaller exoplanets have been discovered in the last two years. They are comparable in mass to the “small giants” of the Solar System - Uranus and Neptune (from 6 to 20 Earth masses). Astronomers called this type "Neptunes." Among them there are four varieties. “Hot Neptunes” are the most common, with nine of them discovered. They are located very close to their stars and are therefore very hot. Two “cold Neptunes,” or “ice giants,” similar to Neptune from the solar system, have also been found. In addition, two “super-Earths” are also classified as this type - massive terrestrial-type planets that do not have such a dense and thick atmosphere as those of the giant planets. One of the “super-Earths” is considered “hot”, reminiscent in its characteristics of the planet Venus with very likely volcanic activity. On the other, “cold” one, the presence of a water ocean is assumed, for which it has already been unofficially dubbed the Oceanid. In general, exoplanets do not yet have their own names and are designated by a letter of the Latin alphabet added to the number of the star around which they revolve. The Cold Super-Earth is the smallest of the exoplanets. It was discovered in 2005 as a result of joint research by 73 astronomers from 12 countries. Observations were carried out at six observatories - in Chile, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Hawaiian Islands. This planet is extremely far from us—20,000 light years.

America joins

In 2008, NASA plans to launch into space the first American apparatus designed to study exoplanets. This will be an automatic Kepler station. It is named after the German astronomer, who in the 17th century established the laws of planetary motion around the Sun. Using a space telescope with a diameter of 95 cm, capable of simultaneously monitoring the changes in the brightness of 100,000 stars, it is planned to find about 50 planets the size of Earth and up to 600 planets with a mass 2-3 times that of Earth. The search will be carried out by recording the periodic weakening of the star's light caused by the passage of a planet in its background. Unfortunately, this simple and visual technique has one drawback - it allows you to see only those planets that are on the same line between the Earth and the star, while many others circling in inclined planes go unnoticed. In 4 years, Kepler must study in detail two relatively small areas of the sky, each the size of the “bucket” of the constellation Ursa Major. The results of the work of this telescope will make it possible to construct a kind of “periodic table” of planetary systems - to classify them according to the characteristics of their orbits and other properties. This will give an idea of how typical or unique our own solar system is and what processes led to the formation of planets, including Earth.

Galactic ecosphere

Of course, the greatest interest is generated by those exoplanets on which life may exist. To purposefully start looking for “brothers in mind” in space, you must first find a planet with a solid surface on which they could hypothetically live. It is unlikely that aliens fly within the atmospheres of gas giants or swim in the depths of the oceans. In addition to a hard surface, you also need a comfortable temperature, as well as the absence of harmful radiation that is incompatible with life (at least with the forms of life known to us). Planets that have water are considered habitable. Therefore, the average temperature on their surface should be about 0°C (it can deviate significantly from this value, but not exceed +100°C). For example, the average temperature on the Earth’s surface is +15°C, and the range of fluctuations is from -90 to +60°C. Regions of space with conditions favorable for the development of life as we know it on Earth are called “habitable zones” by astronomers. Terrestrial planets and their satellites located in such zones are the most likely places for the manifestation of extraterrestrial life forms. The emergence of favorable conditions is possible in cases where the planet is located in two habitable zones at once - circumstellar and galactic.

The circumstellar habitable zone (sometimes also called the “ecosphere”) is an imaginary spherical shell around a star within which the temperature on the surface of the planets allows the presence of water. The hotter the star, the farther such a zone is from it. In our solar system, such conditions exist only on Earth. The planets closest to it, Venus and Mars, are located exactly on the boundaries of this layer - Venus is on the hot side, and Mars is on the cold side. So the location of the Earth is very favorable. If it were closer to the Sun, the oceans would evaporate and the surface would become a hot desert. Further from the Sun, global glaciation will occur and the Earth will turn into a frosty desert. The galactic habitable zone is that region of space that is safe for the manifestation of life. Such a region must be close enough to the center of the galaxy to contain many of the heavy chemical elements necessary for the formation of rocky planets. At the same time, this region must be at a certain distance from the center of the galaxy in order to avoid radiation bursts that occur during supernova explosions, as well as disastrous collisions with numerous comets and asteroids, which can be caused by the gravitational influence of wandering stars. Our Galaxy, the Milky Way, has a habitable zone approximately 25,000 light years from its center. Once again, we were lucky that the Solar System was in a suitable region of the Milky Way, which, according to astronomers, includes only about 5% of all the stars in our Galaxy.

Future searches for terrestrial planets near other stars, planned with the help of space stations, are aimed precisely at such areas favorable for life. This will significantly limit the search area and give hope for the discovery of life outside the Earth. A list of 5,000 of the most promising stars has already been compiled. The surroundings of 30 stars from this list, the location of which is considered the most favorable for the emergence of life, will be studied first.

An infrared view of life

An important milestone in exoplanet research will begin with the launch of a fleet of space telescopes in 2015. This will require two entire Soyuz-Fregat rockets, launching from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana (South America), located near the equator. The European Space Agency named this project Darwin in honor of the famous English naturalist Charles Darwin, whose work literally overturned the ideas about the evolution of living organisms on Earth that had existed by the mid-19th century. A century and a half later, his cosmic namesake may do something similar, but this time in relation to planets outside our solar system. To do this, three telescopes with mirrors with a diameter of 3.5 meters must be sent into orbit around the Sun, to a point located 1.5 million km from the Earth (4 times further than the Moon). They will observe terrestrial exoplanets in the infrared (thermal) range. These three automatic stations constitute a single system, the efficiency of which will correspond to a telescope with a much larger mirror. They will be placed along a circle with a diameter of 100 m, and their relative position will be corrected by a laser system. To do this, a navigation satellite will be launched along with the telescopes, coordinating their location and helping to orient the optical axes of all three telescopes strictly in a given direction. Using disk-shaped radiators, infrared photodetectors will be cooled to -240°C to provide high sensitivity - tens of times greater than that of the new James Webb Space Telescope. Unlike the previous stations COROT and Kepler, the search for signs of life will be carried out according to a pre-prepared list and only near stars located relatively close to us - no more than 8 light years. Analysis of the spectra of exoplanet atmospheres will reveal such traces of possible life activity as the presence of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and methane. The first images of exoplanets similar to Earth should also be obtained.

Planet Watch

The first specialized satellite to search for terrestrial planets outside the solar system will be COROT, which is scheduled to launch in mid-October this year. On board is a space telescope with a diameter of 30 cm, designed to observe periodic changes in the brightness of a star caused by the passage of a planet against its background. The data obtained will make it possible to determine the presence of a planet, establish its size and features of its orbit around the star. This project was developed by the French National Center for Space Research (CNES) with the participation of the European (ESA) and Brazilian (AEB) space agencies. Specialists from Austria, Spain, Germany and Belgium contributed to the preparation of the equipment. With the help of this satellite it is expected to find several dozen terrestrial planets only several times larger than the Earth, which is the largest of the “rocky” planets in our solar system. This is almost impossible to do from Earth, where the vibrations of the atmosphere prevent such small objects from being detected - which is why all the exoplanets discovered so far are giant formations the size of Neptune, Jupiter and even larger. Earth-type rocky planets are several times smaller in diameter and tens and hundreds of times smaller in mass, but they are of interest in the search for extraterrestrial life.

The scientific equipment installed on the COROT satellite is distinguished not by size or quantity, but by quality - high sensitivity. The satellite contains a telescope consisting of two parabolic mirrors with a focal length of 1.1 m and a field of view of approximately 3x3°, a highly stable digital camera and an on-board computer. The satellite will fly around the Earth in a polar circular orbit at an altitude of 900 km. The first stage of observations will take five months, during which two areas of the sky will be studied. The total duration of the satellite's operation will be two and a half years. In the spring of 2006, COROT was delivered to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for pre-flight testing and installation on the launch vehicle. The launch is scheduled for October 15 this year using the Russian Soyuz-Fregat rocket. European automatic stations have already repeatedly launched into space on such rockets, heading to Mars and Venus. In addition to the main task of searching for exoplanets, the satellite will carry out observations of “starquakes” - vibrations of the surfaces of stars caused by processes in their interiors.

Four centuries ago, the Italian monk, doctor of theology and writer Giordano Bruno believed that life was present on all celestial bodies. He believed that “intelligent animals” of other worlds could be very different from people, but he had no opportunity to more definitely imagine what extraterrestrial life was like, since nothing was known about the nature of the planets at that time. He was not alone in his belief that there was life beyond the Earth. Nowadays, one of the discoverers of the double helix of the DNA molecule, the English scientist Francis Crick, noting that the genetic code is identical in all living objects, said that life on Earth could have originated thanks to microorganisms brought from outside. He even quite seriously believed that we might “still be under the surveillance of more intelligent beings from a planet located near some neighboring star.” What might extraterrestrial life be like? On the surface of small but massive planets, where gravity is strong, flat, crawling creatures would most likely live. And the inhabitants of the giant planets will have to float in their dense, humid atmosphere. It is easier to imagine life in the watery shells of planets—whether on the surface or under the ice—by analogy with Earth’s seas and oceans. There are no fundamental barriers to life on small planets far from their star - their inhabitants will simply be forced to hide from the cold in crevices and collect weak light with a reflector similar to a tulip flower.

Exo Object Hunters

Following the COROT satellite, other space stations should rush to search for exoplanets. Moreover, each subsequent flight will be carried out after analyzing the data received from previously launched vehicles. This will allow for a targeted search and reduce the time it takes to discover interesting objects. The nearest launch is scheduled for 2008: the American automatic station Kepler will take over the watch, with the help of which it is planned to find about 50 planets the size of the Earth. In another year, the second American station, SIM (Space Interferometry Mission), should begin its flight, the research of which will cover an even larger number of stars. It is expected to obtain information about several thousand exoplanets, including hundreds of terrestrial planets. At the end of 2011, the European apparatus Gaia (Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics) should be launched into space, with the help of which it is planned to find up to 10,000 exoplanets.

In 2013, under a joint project of the USA, Canada and Europe, it is planned to launch the large space telescope JWST (James Webb Space Telescope). This giant with a mirror with a diameter of 6 meters, bearing the name of the former director of NASA, is intended to replace the veteran of space astronomy - the Hubble telescope. Among its tasks will be the search for planets outside the solar system. In the same year, a complex of two automatic TPF (Terrestrial Planet Finder) stations will be launched, designed exclusively for observing the atmospheres of exoplanets similar to our Earth. With the help of this space observatory, it is planned to search for habitable planets, analyzing the spectra of their gas shells to detect water vapor, carbon dioxide and ozone - gases that indicate the possibility of life. Finally, in 2015, the European Space Agency will send a fleet of Darwin telescopes into space, designed to search for signs of life outside the solar system by analyzing the composition of the atmospheres of exoplanets.

If space exploration of exoplanets goes according to plans, then within ten years we can expect the first reliable news about planets favorable for life - data on the composition of the atmospheres around them and even information about the structure of their surfaces.

By the flickering of a star's light, one can determine the period of revolution of a planet around it, its approximate size and some other characteristics. However, additional observations using other telescopes are needed to confirm the planetary status of each object.

First results

Scientists received the first results of the telescope six months after its launch. Then Kepler found five potential exoplanets: Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b and 8b - “hot Jupiters” on which life cannot exist.

In August 2010, scientists confirmed the discovery of the first planet in a system with more than one, or rather three, planets orbiting a star: Kepler-9.

Kepler Space Telescope. Illustration: NASA

In January 2011, NASA announced Kepler's discovery of the first rocky planet, Kepler-10b, about 1.4 times the size of Earth. However, this planet turned out to be too close to its star for life to exist on it - 20 times closer than Mercury is to the Sun. When discussing the possibility of the existence of life, astronomers use the expression “life zone” or “habitable zone.” This is the distance from a star at which it is neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on the surface.

Thousands of new planets

In September, scientists reported that Kepler had discovered a planet (Kepler-16b) that orbits a binary star, meaning it has two suns.

Artist's rendering of the planet Kepler-62f. Illustration: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/Tim Pyle

In January 2013, NASA announced that another 461 new planets had been added to the list of exoplanet candidates. Four of them were not twice the size of the Earth and at the same time were in the life zone of their stars. In April, scientists reported the discovery of two planetary systems in which three planets larger than Earth were in the habitable zone. In total, there were five planets in the Kepler-62 star system, and two in the Kepler-69 system.

The telescope breaks down...

In May 2013, the telescope’s second of four gyrodynes—devices it needed for orientation and stabilization—failed. Without the ability to hold the telescope in a stable position, it became impossible to continue the “hunt” for exoplanets. However, the list of exoplanets continued to grow as the data accumulated during the telescope’s operation was analyzed. Thus, in July 2013, the list of potential exoplanets already included 3,277 candidates.

In April 2014, scientists reported the discovery of an Earth-sized planet, Kepler-186f, in the star's habitable zone. It is located in the constellation Cygnus, 500 light years away. Along with three other planets, Kepler-186f orbits a red dwarf star half the size of our Sun.

...but continues to work

In May 2014, NASA announced the continued operation of the telescope. It was not possible to completely repair it, but scientists found a way to compensate for the breakdown using the pressure of the solar wind on the device. In December 2014, a telescope operating in the new mode was able to detect the first exoplanet.

Planet Kepler-69c as imagined by an artist. Illustration: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

On July 23, 2015, scientists reported a new batch of candidate planets added to the Kepler catalog. Now their number is 4696, and the number of confirmed planets is 1030, among them 12 planets are not more than twice the size of the Earth and are in the habitable zone of their stars. One of them is Kepler 452b, which is 1,400 light-years from Earth and orbits a star that is similar to the Sun, only 4% more massive and 10% brighter.

The number of exoplanets discovered in data collected by the Kepler space telescope, and confirmed by independent observations using other astronomical instruments, has exceeded a thousand after eight more exoplanets were discovered among 544 new planet candidates, located in zones favorable for the formation and existence on them life. Let us remind our readers that the Kepler space telescope collected the main body of information during its main mission, observing for almost four years the night sky in the region of the Lyra constellation, in which it monitored more than 150 thousand stars. Analyzing the massive amount of data collected over time, the Kepler mission science team discovered 4,175 potential planet candidates and confirmed the existence of 1,000 of that number. But the methods used by scientists to analyze data are constantly being improved, and this makes it possible to find traces of more and more planets in seemingly already studied data.

Until now, the Kepler telescope has been hunting for exoplanets using the transit method. The telescope's highly sensitive sensors caught the slightest changes in the brightness of the stars, which occurred at those moments when a planet of a distant system passed between the star and the Earth. By recording curves of changes in brightness and making other high-precision calculations, the telescope equipment allowed scientists to find out whether the planet was really causing the decrease in brightness, and if the first question was answered positively, to calculate the characteristics of the planet, such as the range and period of the orbit, mass, size, presence of an atmosphere and etc.

The last eight planets discovered in Kepler data are truly the crown jewels of the collection. The sizes of all the planets do not exceed the size of the Earth by more than twice, and their orbits pass in favorable zones where the temperature on the surface allows the existence of liquid water. In addition, six of the eight planets orbit Sun-like stars, and two of them are rocky planets, similar to the planets in the inner solar system.

The first of the two planets mentioned above, Kepler-438b, located 475 light-years away and 12 percent larger than Earth, orbits its star with a period of 35.2 days. The second planet, Kepler-442b, located 1,100 light-years away, is 33 percent larger than Earth and has an orbital “year” of 112 days. Such short orbital periods indicate that these planets are much closer to their stars than the Earth is to the Sun, however, they are still in favorable zones due to the fact that their stars are smaller and cooler than the Sun.

"The Kepler telescope collected data for four years. That's quite a long time and in the huge amount of data collected, we can still find planets the size of Earth rotating around their stars in orbits no greater than the distance from the Earth to the Sun for a very long time," says Fergal Mullally Fergal Mullally, a scientist at NASA Ames Research Center and a member of the Kepler mission science team, said: "And new methods for analyzing the collected data, which are improving every time, bring us even closer to discovering planets."