Image of a Planet around Fomalhaut

SpaceRef: Hubble Announces A Major Extrasolar Planet Discovery

Let the speculations begin!

(I've lost track of what's still working on Hubble, not sure if an imaging discovery -- e.g. Eps Eri b -- is on the cards... otherwise it might be some kind of astrometric detection?)

WFPC2 and FGS are working. So I'm guessing it could be transit detections or astrometric detections. Don't forget the last HST exoplanet announcement, the 2 SWEEPS planets and several unconfirmed planets. I'm hoping for something good, but am not holding my breath.

So am I thinkin' about the 10 light years neighbour Epsilon Eridani, but who knows?...

It may be that the HST observations that led to whatever discovery this is occurred before HST's computer failed.

Here's a list of scheduled, past and present, observations for HST. Skimming through, most exoplanet related observations seem to be FGS astrometry.

http://www.stsci.edu/observing/weekly_timeline.html

Lazarus wrote:

...otherwise it might be some kind of astrometric detection?)

Sirius_Alpha wrote:

WFPC2 and FGS are working. So I'm guessing it could be transit detections or astrometric detections. ...

You know, it's sort of a hit in the gut to have overlooked this when speculating over what instruments were available.

The article Lazarus linked us to wrote:

...This unique discovery, made by the Hubble Space Telescope's Advance Camera for Surveys instrument...

... which is the very same instrument that gave us SWEEPS planets.

Ah oops missed that.

So if it is the ACS, I'm guessing some kind of transit detection. Two planets in the same system?

Lazarus wrote:

So if it is the ACS, I'm guessing some kind of transit detection. Two planets in the same system?

That's what I was thinking. Here's a list of targets observed in 2008 with the ACS (excluding Saturn, some supernovae, several "Any" targets, ESO galaxies, targets with no discernible names (i.e. a collection of numbers) and SDSS targets).Doesn't look like they do full target names in the timeline.

TWA-6
2MASS-J041...
RX-J1111.7...
2MASXJ0837...
TWA-16
TWA-8
J132109.07...
RX-J1842.9...
RX-J1852.3...
RXJ1131-12...
REJ1255+26...
XMMUJ13473...
HD 189733
16 Cygni B
PSR1055-52
EF Eri

I can't see a single planet discovery being worth reporting, so I don't think a transiting planet at 16 Cyg B is likely to be it, unless there's multiple planets (or the already known planet is transiting --> First long-period transiting planet). Transit timing variations for HD 189733 with a definite planet would be pretty neat. Perhaps another transiting planet in that system? Maybe some of the TW Hydrae assocation stars have young transiting planet(s)?

I've been looking at the ACS observation schedule for HST, and found that 16 Cyg B was observed by a guy named "Kuntschner". The NASA pre-release thing says that "Marc Kuchner" is one of the scientists involved with the Nov 13 announcement. I don't know if the two are somehow the same or not. I'm unable to find any use of ACS by any of the scientists listed in that pre-release from 2007 to now.

Could it even be a free-floating planet below 13Mj? If so, than, it would seem to be an accidental find, since the name would not even appear in the target list.

If so, it will probably be on the view of a known target that was scene several times.

The suspense is going to kill me. What is it? They used the word major, they don't use that much!

Zazaban wrote:

The suspense is going to kill me. What is it? They used the word major, they don't use that much!

Until there's no issue, article or paper at ArXiV.org, we can just infer everything.

Anyway, welcome at EVII, Zazaban

You know. It could just be that they discovered water on a Neptunian planet.

marasama wrote:

You know. It could just be that they discovered water on a Neptunian planet.

With the ACS?

Sirius_Alpha wrote:

marasama wrote:

You know. It could just be that they discovered water on a Neptunian planet.

With the ACS?

I doubt it, I was just stating that it might be more hype than what not.

The below statement (dynamics of cats) seems to suggest that we already know about the up coming press release - perchance more info about the astroid belts around a nearby neighbour...


thursday's news has far to go

Category: astro
Posted on: November 10, 2008 10:51 PM, by Steinn Sigurðsson

there will be a major press release on thursday, for a paper appearing in Science this week.
It is a potentially major planet discovery, I will not break embargo to leak the news, but the hint of the upcoming discovery was public exactly two months ago, and there will be some nice ancillary information provided online when the news comes out.

Some very interesting comments on that blog entry... apparently some have figured it out already.

(Of course, we must not break the embargo by posting it before time)

Blog entry? Have I missed something?

Zazaban wrote:

Blog entry? Have I missed something?

A blog named Dynamics of Cats. I don't remember the URL though.

Lazarus wrote:

Some very interesting comments on that blog entry... apparently some have figured it out already.

(Of course, we must not break the embargo by posting it before time)

Right, but PM's are okay =)

Wouldn't want to ruin the suspense for anyone.

Well if you PM, skip me. I am going to wait for it. Thanks for the option.

Edasich wrote:

Zazaban wrote:

Blog entry? Have I missed something?

A blog named Dynamics of Cats. I don't remember the URL though.

I found it on google, but I can't find anything

Oh my god! It's a earth-like planet broadcasting pay-per-view?

P.S. It appears some people over at wikipedia have gotten wind of what it is.

hmm... interesting...

embargo

embargo