Thirty years ago, on October 6, 1995, the first exoplanet discovered around the star was detected. 51 Pagasi B is called B, it was a world as we had never seen before: a gas veteran planet like Jupiter, but so close to its star that its year is slightly greater than the Earth and the sky burns on 1,830 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 ° C).
51 Paigasi B search was a significant twist in astronomical history. Now we were not limited to just study Planets In our own form Solar systemOne was complete Universe To detect planetary systems for us.
“When first Exoplanet It was discovered, I remember that it was really good, but it was also thinking, ‘Duh! Like, there are definitely planets! ,
This first proved to be a pawn for a whole galaxy stuffed with the brim with the first exoplanet planets. Today, exoplanet stands on the count More than 6,000 And is growing all the time. Statistics show that almost every star of about 200 billion stars in us Milky Way galaxy Is the planet.
This means that there are plenty of planets, but 51 Paigasi B was the first. Like most exoplanets, it was found indirectly. Astronomers Michelle Mayor and Didia Quailz of the University of Geneva discovered planetary systems with a spectrograph allody at a 1.9-meter (6.2 ft) binoculars at Observatoire de Haute-Provence in France. Elodi worked due to being able to detect a star wobling.
Why would a planet be staggering a star? Imagine a parent and child imagine that there are sitting at the opposite end of a long time. Parents, being older, have most mass, and the center of joint mass of both parents and child is so close to the parents. Therefore, either with parents and child, either at the end, cisau tips towards the adult.
Suppose, however, they want to make the cesov balance horizontally. The parents will move themselves close to the axis point, taking the center closer to the axis. Once the center of their joint mass falls on the axis, the sesaw balance.
This, in fact, what we see in the exoplanetary system. Just in the example of sesaw, star The mass is located very close to the center of the mass because the system includes the vast majority of mass. Often, the center of mass occurs inside the stars, but significantly it is offset and not in its center.
The planet does not actually revolve around the star; It is revolving around the center of mass instead. And vice versa: Tara also revolves around the center of mass, so it seems to move around this point, and in doing so, it will be closer to us from time to time and then it will be away from us. This movement is marginal, but the result Doppler shift In the light of the star – as the star swings in our direction, its light waves bend up, shortening their wavelength, and when it rotates away from us, the light waves are more spread. This is the same effect as the sound waves turn into a pitch in the case of waves because they exit the siren of an emergency vehicle. The larger the planet, the stronger the planet is shift.
The Mayor and Qulelose discovered 51 Pagasi B using ALODI to measure the Doppler shift in the light of their star, as it revolves around the center of the mass and 51 Pagasi B. Astronomers called this technique a “radial velocity” method because it is measuring the velocity of the star and is away from us because it rotates around. Hundreds of planets have been found by this method, and through it thousands and more verified existence. So far, no direct image of 51 Paigasi B has been taken; The planet is far away from the Earth (50 light-year) and is close to its stars, even by our best telescopes.
Still there was a turn. The mayor and quails were hoping to find planetary systems with architecture like our solar system, closer to their stars and large gaseous worlds with small rocky planets.
So it was a shock when the size of the Doppler shift suggested that 51 Paigasi B is a gas giant which is practically at the door of his star. It is a type of planet that we now call “Hot Jupiter“But at that time it left astronomers as to how such a notable planets could be present. According to the model of the formation of the planets, gas giants cannot become close to their stars. This is a secret that has been solved since: 51 Paigasi B and other hot Jupiter Xoplanets overtook their star.
For Don Polco, who are the main scientists European Space AgencyUpcoming planet Plato The discovery of a professor of astronomy at the University of Warwick in Mission and Warwick in England is an example of the dangers lean in allowing our perceptions and scientific prejudices to blind to reality.
“Trying to use us Earth And as an example of the solar system, exoplanets should be like a great surprise, “he told Space.com.” The first planets that were discovered were nothing like planets in our solar system! ,
Like the sun, the first exoplanet was not discovered by an accident. It was a race that was won by the Mayor and Qailows. The second place was a group led by Paul Butler and Jyoff Marxi, then at the University of California, Berkeley, which despite not making the first discovery, was able to confirm the existence of 51 Pagasi B, which was important to achieve the astronomical community to accept such an extraordinary discovery. Then, in 1996, Butler and Marxi found 70 Virginis B, which was the second exoplanet revolving like the sun and another hot Jupiter.
Although the nature of 51 Paigasi B blew the minds of astronomers, the fact that exoplanets were less shocking. Science fiction, of course, has been depicting exoplanets for decades, and in 1992, radio astronomers del Fil and Alexander Volszan discovered a revolving planets. PulsarThe spinning remains of a huge star that has gone to Supernova. However, many astronomers rejected the Pulsar planets more or less – Polako describes them as “cynicals” – because they are not considered to be formed like regular planets and are unlikely to live.
For handrix, it was in devices that develop the key to discovering exoplanets that were sufficient to find out.
Hendrix said, “Before we find them.” “I do not want to reduce its enthusiasm, but exoplanets were expected to really find the expected; it was just a matter of reaching speed to be able to find our technology.”
For anyone under 30 years of age, the concept of a universe in which we did not know about other planetary systems, he could seem, forgive a foreigner, a foreigner. In the late 1990s, however, it was like seeing science fiction coming into life. The discovery of 51 Paagasi B changed the size of astronomy. Young researchers inspired by the discovery are today, who accuse to discover and paint thousands of exoplanets with some of the most expensive telescopes and space missions ever.
“I remember going to two conferences, one after the other, in 1998,” remembered Polko. “The first planets were on NebulasAnd I was the youngest person there. Straight later I went to an exoplanet conference and I was the oldest person there! This was amazing, because the planet Nabula conference contained around 60 people, and there were a 300 in the exoplanet, so you could just see what was happening. ,
The wind had changed, and soon exoplanet science will develop into a demon scientific field, a one that captures the imagination of astronomers and the public equally. Many types of worlds have been found, from more hot jupiters to “mini Napchunus“And for the lava planets, super-meaning and world, which is a chance to live, however, no planets like Earth have been identified till date.
