welcome to lab 360 where we bring you all the latest happenings from the world of astronomy
from the potato chips to post-it notes some of life's greatest discoveries have been accidental
serendipitously the same applies to the universe from super earth and sun twins to alcohol spewing
comets the extraordinary efforts carried out by scientists and astronomers have led to
mind-blowing discoveries in outer space one such astronomical discovery albeit an accidental one
changed science forever the first of its kind this mysterious discovery initially called psr b1257
plus 12b and later named poltergeist confirmed the existence of a planets outside our solar system
the men behind this feat were penn state exoplanet astronomer alexander wolston and his colleague
david frail although their paper published on january 22nd 1992 stated the existence of
this exoplanet quite conclusively the discovery was accidental the duo was looking for pulsars
and had spent much of their time in the 1980s and 1990s doing so pulsars are powerfully magnetized
rotating neutron stars that produce intense beams of light that we on earth detect as flashes or
pulses what is fascinating about them is that they are extremely accurate in their periodic pulsing
so much so that they are used for navigation in deep space they act as space beacons similar to
lighthouses on earth helping guide spacecrafts through the cosmos but due to their violent
formation in the heart of supernova explosions no one believed that they could have harbored planets
but they did wolshan was a pulsar hunter and a resident pulsar radio astronomer at
the arecibo observatory in puerto rico in the 1990s in support of his work
and to search for millisecond pulsars beyond the milky way's galactic disk he was given complete
and soul charge to use the large dish for two months in early 1990. time and effort paid off
and wolshan found two pulsars out of the galactic plane one of which psr b1257 plus 12 about 2 300
light years away in the virgo constellation seemed to have some irregularities in its timekeeping
astronomers had been on the watch for exoplanets much before the time wolston came across his own
most of them used the radial velocity method which involved watching the spectra of light emitted by
stars over time for a wobble in their motion with much precision the wobbles are indicative of the
tug of an orbiting planet although wolsthan was not using the radial velocity method
he paid very close attention to the pulsing behavior of poltergeist he observed it and timed
the emissions of the pulsar over a certain period of time this indicated its precise rotation period
wolshan knew that poltergeist was most likely a part of a binary system
that is a pulsar in mutual orbit with a white dwarf or similar star and that is why he kept a
close watch on the companion star's gravitational influence on poltergeist pulse what he noticed was
that the pulsing of poltergeist was not precise as it should have been if its companion was indeed
a white dwarf star he came to the conclusion that because the variations in pulsar timing
are extremely sensitive to change when there are other massive objects present he was most
certainly dealing with other objects in the system the paper published by wolston stated the presence
of poltergeist and its companion faux beater both of which were about four times the mass of earth
two years later another exoplanet was detected by wolshan and mache kaneki it was the smallest
exoplanet known thus far only about twice the size of the moon it was named draugr
till date astronomers are looking for answers to understand how poltergeist and its companions were
formed one theory says they could be the congealed remains of poltergeist shredding passing stars
but nobody knows for sure having said that science has advanced tremendously
since the discovery of poltergeist in 1992 in 1999 astronomers successfully used the
transit method which involved observing the stars for dips in their brightness
as planets passed in front of them this led to the discovery of hd 209458b or osiris making this
technique popular in the hunt for exoplanets ever since then we have made several space telescopes
the hubble which is called the father of space telescopes has been in service for decades and
sent stunning pictures back to earth now the james webb space telescope build on past data and future
expectations is going to look for the mysteries of the early universe hunt out exoplanets and see
if they can harbor life drop in your comments to let us know and don't forget to subscribe lab 360
where we bring you all the latest happenings from the world of astronomy astronomers scientists and
common folk like us can spend decades debating the status of objects in our solar system is
little pluto a planet what will become of saturn now that it's losing its rings well the truth is
every planet in every solar system got the short end of the stick the winners of the cosmic game
are the nomads the wanderers the rogue planets our galaxy is full of stars and planets typically
there is at least one star per planet wherein the planet orbits around that star the milky way has
a few hundred billion stars giving us therefore a few hundred billion planets orbiting those stars
and for every planet there is at least one rogue planet marking its journey in space so what is
a rogue planet rogue planets are cosmic objects that move freely unattached and single in space
they do not orbit any particular star and have masses very similar to the planets in our solar
system by virtue of their small size and dim light they are extremely hard to detect they only glow
weekly in the infrared from any internal heat they may have more reasons for them to be called rogues
and more reasons for them to have remained undetected and a mystery for astronomers
well until now in a stunning discovery on december 22nd 2021 a team of astronomers
discovered at least 70 new rogue planets in our galaxy under normal circumstances a planet not in
proximity to its parent star would have no source of illumination and hence difficult to detect
but these planets were glowing and hence identifiable using data from several european
southern observatory eso telescopes and other facilities spanning 20 years
astronomers and scientists took advantage of the of the fact that in the few million years
after their formation these relatively young planets were still hot and glowing allowing
them to be discovered by sensitive cameras on large telescopes the team measured tiny motions
colors and luminosities of millions of sources in a large section of the space the upper scorpius
they measured the points of light in optical and near infrared wavelengths in and combined
the measurements with the movement they detected this allowed them to identify the faintest objects
in the sky the rogue planets they found that many of the planets have masses comparable to jupiters
in a star-forming region close to our sun located within the scorpius and ophiuchus constellations
this region of sky lies 420 light years away from earth the detection of so many rogue planets also
begs the question how did these rogue planets come to be by studying the newly found rogue planets
astronomers are trying to find clues to this mystery some scientists believe rogue planets
were formed from the collapse of a gas cloud that was too small to form of a star others believe
that they may have been kicked out from a solar system similar to ours if this is true then the
possibility of there being a host of earth-sized rogue planets journeying through the cosmos is
very high this discovery of 70 rogue planets has been a monumental step in allowing us to
better understand the origins of these elusive cosmic nomads for example we have the ots-44
a potential rogue planet 11 times the mass of jupiter and 554 light years away
the debate on whether it is a rogue planet or an object known as the brown dwarf
is still on on the other hand the oval 2019 blg0551 although is the size of earth could
either be a rogue or a regular planet on an extremely wide orbit from its parent star
however what has excited astronomers and scientists the most is the speculation of
rogue planets harboring life we have seen that although the rogue planets are neither illuminated
nor warmed by stars they do have internal heat and where there is heat there is likelihood of water
which is what we need to live and harbor life fancy a trip to a rogue planet let us
know in the comments below and don't forget to subscribe to lab360 because in astronomy
we trust according to statistics humans are most likely not alone in the universe
fermi's paradox can help us think about this possibility alien civilizations may have already
arisen prospered and become interplanetary given the abundance of stars expected to have planets
like earth where liquid water life and a moderate atmosphere support life aliens may find traveling
to other universes as simple as going from home to the nearest mcdonald's if this is the case we may
not need to colonize faraway worlds in order to meet them they might make an attempt to contact us
it's both terrifying and intriguing to consider but how will aliens communicate with humanity
what would be the most effective manner for a technologically advanced alien civilization to
announce its arrival throughout the galaxy it could be to make it star systems planets dance
in a mathematical sequence many searches for intelligent life have been carried out thus far
such as probing for radio signals or megastructures around stars
but the results have been vague and have natural explanations that's why a scientist from france
has proposed that we hunt for planets orbiting in precise patterns that could only have evolved
purposefully their hypothesis is that a highly evolved civilization could alter the orbits of
planets in its solar system to serve as a beacon of its presence to an observer from the outside
the gravitational pull of asteroids might be used to slowly move planets into new places over
thousands of years causing them to have full orbits relative to one another in a specific
fixed ratio or resonance natural gravitational interactions produce such resonances for example
jupiter's moon io completes four jupiter orbits for every two europa orbits and one ganymede orbit
forming a two to one resonance chain similar patterns have been observed in other star systems
although those in which the ratios of each body differ rather than creating chains have never
been observed as a result the researchers believe aliens may organize their planets in sequences
that are unlikely to occur naturally such as a prime number series or the fibonacci sequence
the researchers calculated that these orbits may persist for 20 billion years before losing
resonance even surviving the demise of their host star the concept is similar to colossal
structures on earth such as ancient egypt's tallest pyramids which were built to last beyond
the lifetime of a civilization similarly this beacon has the potential to outlast its creators
even if we did uncover such a sequence it wouldn't prove intelligent life
and it's possible that the civilization behind it has long since vanished
but the relics of it might still be found what do you guys think?