A TEAM of Tasmanian scientists today announced its discovery of a huge planet with a revolutionary new astronomy technique. The massive, gaseous planet, cumbersomely named OB-05-071, is in the Milky Way between Earth and the centre of the galaxy, about 15,000 light years away. It is believed to be around 3 times the weight of Jupiter, and to orbit a star similar to our sun.
The odds of the discovery were one in 10 million, said Stefan Dieters of the Canopus Observatory team at Cambridge, which found the planet. On three nights in April, Dr Dieters and Kym Hill were in the right place at the right time to identify the planet, which is 1000 times the size of Earth. The news was announced this morning 10am on the NASA-sponsored website of Harvard University's Centre for Astrophysics. It was found through a technique based on the theory that the gravity of big objects in space bends passing light from stars. The starlight is distorted as a result and astronomers can detect the heavenly culprit.
OB-05-071 is one of the most distant ever discovered and proves the usefulness of microlensing in the hunt for Earth-like worlds across the galaxy. The University of Tasmania team is part of an international collaborative project co-ordinated by the Paris Institute for Astrophysics, which is pioneering the use of gravitational microlensing to look for new planets. The project group has telescopes ringing the southern hemisphere - in Hobart, Perth, Chile and South Africa - enabling members to continuously keep watch at night. Dr Dieters and Dr Hill were at Canopus when they were alerted by a New Zealand group that was not part of the project. Their observations were monitored by the Paris Institute as they made them. "There had been data coverage from many telescopes but we filled in the gaps on three important nights - April 20, 21 and 26," Dr Hill said.
Another planet was identified by the project group two years ago but scientists were not convinced the data was unassailable. The university's head of physics, John Dickey, said: "This is the first confirmed planet discovered using this technique. There is no ambiguity in the interpretation. It is very exciting." |
