Hobby-Eberly Telescope Bags First Planet
(From the September/October 2004 issue of StarDate
magazine)
The 9.2-meter Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory has detected
its first planet outside our solar system. Discovered by McDonald
Observatory astronomers Bill Cochran, Michael Endl, and Barbara McArthur,
the planet has a mass 2.84 times that of Jupiter. It orbits the star HD
37605, a star a little smaller and a little cooler than the Sun, every 54.23
days.
“In 100 days of observations — less than two full orbits — we were able to
get a very good solution for this planet’s orbit,” Cochran said. The quick
results were due to HET’s “queue scheduling” system, he said. Astronomers do
not travel to the observatory to operate the HET. Rather, a telescope
operator on-site has a list of all HET research projects and selects the
ones best suited to any given night’s weather conditions and Moon phase.
This way, many targets for different research projects can be observed each
night, and any particular target can be observed dozens of night in a row.
“If the HET had a normal scheduling system, it would have taken us a year or
two to confirm this planet,” Cochran said.
Of the approximately 120 extrasolar planets found to date, this new planet
has the third most eccentric orbit — bringing it in close in to its parent
star like a “hot Jupiter,” and swinging it back out. -- Rebecca Johnson
» More information about extrasolar planets
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