Gaia has just discovered two Jupiter-like planets.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, ARIZONA — Scientist Gaia surprised to learn that star-gazing spacecraft can double as planet-hunters. In the first mission, old star surveyors spotted two Jupiter-sized planets in a remote part of the galaxy.
The finding was confirmed with the Large Binocular Telescope, in Arizona. The findings reveal the spacecraft could double as a reconnaissance of foreign worlds.
Reported from Space, Sunday (17/7/2022), Gaia from the European Space Agency (ESA) has since been able to see a bright object in the distance, being used again to examine the transit of a planet across its parent star. Researchers are using artificial intelligence to scour the spacecraft’s archives for signs of a light drop that occurs when a planet temporarily eclipses its stellar companion.
The inspection certainly paid off. “The discovery of the two new planets was made after a precise search, using artificial intelligence methods,” said co-author Shay Zucker, principal of Tel Aviv University’s Porter School of Environmental and Earth Sciences, in a statement announcing the discovery.
Zucker added there are other candidates to consider. “We have also published 40 more candidates that we detected by Gaia. The astronomy community must now try to corroborate their planetary properties, as we did for the first two candidates,” he said.
The two new planets, named Gaia-1b and Gaia-2b, are called “hot Jupiters” because the gas giant rotates so close to its parent star.
The confirmed planet and dozens of suspected planetary candidates represent a value-added moment in Gaia’s stargazing capabilities. Despite the precise ability to map the movement of stars and variations in their brightness, the discovery of much smaller and fainter planets has been in doubt until now.
The researchers suggest that if Gaia works with other observatories, it may be able to find more information about distant worlds. However, it is difficult to predict at this time how Gaia will aid the ongoing search for a new planet, and characterize its potential habitability.
The study was published in May in Astronomy & Astrophysics. The research was led by Tel Aviv doctoral student Aviad Panahi, from the Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics & Astronomy.
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