25 years ago
not a single planet outside the solar
system had been detected
that's remarkably we now know of
thousands and have studied many in
surprising detail esos observatories in
Chile have been at the forefront of this
enormous expansion in knowledge and
their state-of-the-art instruments are
continuing to discover and study the
extraordinary diversity of exoplanets
this is the esocast cutting-edge science
and life behind the scenes at ESO the
European Southern Observatory
looking up at the night sky people
throughout history have wondered if
there are planets and especially planets
bearing life beyond the solar system
astronomers have also asked themselves
these questions and many more are
planets common or very rare do they
resemble planets in the solar system or
are they totally different frustratingly
until very recently observational
techniques were not advanced enough to
be able to answer any of these questions
but in 1995 this changed overnight the
first exoplanet orbiting a sun-like star
was detected the monumental discovery
was made by geneva-based astronomers
michel my R&D a que lo around the star
51 pegasi the exoplanet named 51 pegasi
B has around half the mass of Jupiter
and travels around its parent star in
just over four Earth days but this was
only the beginning the initial trickle
of discoveries became a flood thousands
of exoplanets has since been detected in
a huge variety of sizes and orbits
many of these discoveries have been made
by eso's observatories in Chile but the
hunt for exoplanets is a challenging one
these alien worlds hide in the shadows
giving off little or no light of their
own any like that they do emit is
swamped by the overwhelming brilliance
of their parent star
however advanced observational methods
can be used to spot these elusive
exoplanets the weak gravitational pull
of an exoplanet in orbit causes its
parent star to wobble back and forth
this tiny motion causes a small shift in
the star spectrum which extremely
sensitive spectrographs such as those
hops can detect through radial velocity
tracking apps installed on the Easter
3.6 meter telescope match the lassie
observatory is the world's foremost
exoplanet hunter it's the most
successful finder of low-mass exoplanets
to date in $MONTH 2010 the instrument
discovered the riches planetary system
yet the system located over a hundred
and twenty light-years away around the
sun-like star HD 10 180 contains at
least five exoplanets
there is also tantalizing evidence that
two more planets may be present in this
system one of which would have the
lowest mass ever found planetary
transits can also be utilized by
astronomers to indirectly detect distant
worlds when an exoplanet passes in front
of its parent star as seen from the
earth
it blocks a small fraction of the star's
light from our view this creates a dip
in the brightness of the star which can
be measured in addition to determining
the size of an exoplanet planetary
transits can reveal the composition of
an exoplanets atmosphere
the atmosphere around a super-earth
exoplanet was analyzed for the first
time by astronomers using the Very Large
Telescope the planet which is known as
GJ 1214b was studied as it passed in
front of its parent star and Starlight
passed through the planet's atmosphere
this starlight revealed that the
planet's atmosphere is either mostly
water in the form of steam or is
dominated by thick clouds or Hayes's
directly observing an exoplanet is a
monumental feat but one that was first
achieved by ESO the Very Large Telescope
obtained the first-ever image of a
planet outside the solar system 2m 1207
be is five times more massive than
Jupiter it orbits a failed star a brown
dwarf at a distance 55 times larger than
the earth to the Sun esos telescopes are
equipped with state-of-the-art
instruments but to remain at the
forefront of exoplanet research ESO has
recently commissioned to new instruments
for the VLT
sphere is able to find and study faint
planets masked by the glare of their
host stars and in the near future the
espresso spectrograph will arrive at the
VLT where it will surpass harps the
European extremely large telescope which
is currently under construction in Chile
will take the hunt for exoplanets even
further once operational this 39 meet a
scope could detect earth-like planets
and possibly evidence of alien
biospheres the search for planets
outside the solar system constitutes a
key element of what is possibly the
greatest question of or is there life
elsewhere in the universe over the past
20 years our knowledge of exoplanets has
advanced dramatically but the quest for
earth-like planets and those that Harbor
life remains one of the great frontiers
of astronomy
are we alone we do not know but the
answer is almost within reach
history about the only person around it
doesn't have TV coverage of the baby and
it man you got the black up now you can
start getting a TV picture mail yes we
are getting
one all