PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

A new way to look for life-sustaining planets

New capabilities developed by an international team of astronomers make it possible to directly image planets that could potentially harbor life within the habitable zone of a neighboring star system

A new way to look for life-sustaining planets
2021-02-10
(Press-News.org) It is now possible to capture images of planets that could potentially sustain life around nearby stars, thanks to advances reported by an international team of astronomers in the journal Nature Communications.

Using a newly developed system for mid-infrared exoplanet imaging, in combination with a very long observation time, the study's authors say they can now use ground-based telescopes to directly capture images of planets about three times the size of Earth within the habitable zones of nearby stars.

Efforts to directly image exoplanets - planets outside our solar system - have been hamstrung by technological limitations, resulting in a bias toward the detection of easier-to-see planets that are much larger than Jupiter and are located around very young stars and far outside the habitable zone - the "sweet spot" in which a planet can sustain liquid water. If astronomers want to find alien life, they need to look elsewhere.

"If we want to find planets with conditions suitable for life as we know it, we have to look for rocky planets roughly the size of Earth, inside the habitable zones around older, sun-like stars," said the paper's first author, Kevin Wagner, a Sagan Fellow in NASA's Hubble Fellowship Program at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory.

The method described in the paper provides more than a tenfold improvement over existing capabilities to directly observe exoplanets, Wagner said. Most studies on exoplanet imaging have looked in infrared wavelengths of less than 10 microns, stopping just short of the range of wavelengths where such planets shine the brightest, Wagner said.

"There is a good reason for that because the Earth itself is shining at you at those wavelengths," Wagner said. "Infrared emissions from the sky, the camera and the telescope itself are essentially drowning out your signal. But the good reason to focus on these wavelengths is that's where an Earthlike planet in the habitable zone around a sun-like star is going to shine brightest."

The team used the Very Large Telescope, or VLT, of the European Southern Observatory in Chile to observe our closest neighbor star system: Alpha Centauri, just 4.4 light-years away. Alpha Centauri is a triple star system; it consists of two stars - Alpha Centauri A and B - that are similar to the sun in size and age and orbit each other as a binary system. The third star, Alpha Centauri C, better known as Proxima Centauri, is a much smaller red dwarf orbiting its two siblings at a great distance.

A planet not quite twice the size of Earth and orbiting in the habitable zone around Proxima Centauri has already been indirectly detected through observations of the star's radial velocity variation, or the tiny wobble a star exhibits under the tug of the unseen planet. According to the study's authors, Alpha Centauri A and B could host similar planets, but indirect detection methods are not yet sensitive enough to find rocky planets in their more widely separated habitable zones, Wagner explained.

"With direct imaging, we can now push beneath those detection limits for the first time," he said.

To boost the sensitivity of the imaging setup, the team used a so-called adaptive secondary telescope mirror that can correct for the distortion of the light by the Earth's atmosphere. In addition, the researchers used a starlight-blocking mask that they optimized for the mid-infrared light spectrum to block the light from one of the stars at a time. To enable observing both stars' habitable zones simultaneously, they also pioneered a new technique to switch back and forth between observing Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B very rapidly.

"We're moving one star on and one star off the coronagraph every tenth of a second," Wagner said. "That allows us to observe each star for half of the time, and, importantly, it also allows us to subtract one frame from the subsequent frame, which removes everything that is essentially just noise from the camera and the telescope."

Using this approach, the undesired starlight and "noise" - unwanted signal from within the telescope and camera - become essentially random background noise, possible to further reduce by stacking images and subtracting the noise using specialized software.

Similar to the effect to noise-canceling headphones, which allow soft music to be heard over a steady stream of unwanted jet engine noise, the technique allowed the team to remove as much of the unwanted noise as possible and detect the much fainter signals created by potential planet candidates inside the habitable zone.

The team observed the Alpha Centauri system for nearly 100 hours over the course of a month in 2019, collecting more than 5 million images. They collected about 7 terabytes of data, which they made publicly available at http://archive.eso.org .

"This is one of the first dedicated multi-night exoplanet imaging campaigns, in which we stacked all of the data we accumulated over nearly a month and used that to achieve our final sensitivity," Wagner said.

After removing so-called artifacts - false signals created by the instrumentation and residual light from the coronagraph - the final image revealed a light source designated as "C1" that could potentially hint at the presence of an exoplanet candidate inside the habitable zone.

"There is one point source that looks like what we would expect a planet to look like, that we can't explain with any of the systematic error corrections," Wagner said. "We are not at the level of confidence to say we discovered a planet around Alpha Centauri, but there is a signal there that could be that with some subsequent verification."

Simulations of what planets within the data are likely to look like suggest that "C1" could be a Neptune- to Saturn-sized planet at a distance from Alpha Centauri A that is similar to the distance between the Earth and the sun, Wagner said. However, the authors clearly state that without subsequent verification, the possibility that C1 might be due to some unknown artifact caused by the instrument itself cannot be ruled out just yet.

Finding a potentially habitable planet within Alpha Centauri has been the goal of the initiative Breakthrough Watch/NEAR, which stands for New Earths in the Alpha Centauri Region. Breakthrough Watch is a global astronomical program looking for Earthlike planets around nearby stars.

"We are very grateful to the Breakthrough Initiatives and ESO for their support in achieving another steppingstone towards the imaging of Earthlike planets around our neighbor stars," said Markus Kasper, lead scientist of the NEAR project and a co-author on the paper.

The team intends to embark on another imaging campaign in a few years, in an attempt to catch this potential exoplanet in the Alpha Centauri system in a different location, and to see whether it would be consistent with what would be expected based on modeling its expected orbit. Further clues may come from follow-up observations using different methods.

The next-generation of extremely large telescopes, such as the Extremely Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory, and the Giant Magellan Telescope, for which the University of Arizona produces the primary mirrors, are expected to be able to increase direct observations of nearby stars that might harbor planets in their habitable zones by a factor of 10, Wagner explained. Candidates to look at include Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, and Tau Ceti, which hosts an indirectly observed planetary system that Wagner and his colleagues will try to directly image.

"Making the capability demonstrated here a routine observing mode - to be able to pick up heat signatures of planets orbiting within the habitable zones of nearby stars - will be a game changer for the exploration of new worlds and for the search for life in the universe," said study co-author Daniel Apai, a UArizona associate professor of astronomy and planetary science who leads the NASA-funded Earths in Other Solar Systems program that partly supported the study.

INFORMATION:

Funding for NEAR was provided primarily by the Breakthrough Watch program and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Breakthrough Watch is managed by the Breakthrough Initiatives, sponsored by the Breakthrough Foundation. Breakthrough Watch provided the instrument upgrades that made the observations possible, and ESO contributed the telescope time.

For a full set of authors and institutions, and funding information, please see the research paper "Imaging low-mass planets within the habitable zone of Alpha; Centauri."

"Imaging Habitable-Zone Exoplanets Around Alpha Centauri," a video about this research by Kevin Wagner, is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da2EMPuGu00&feature=youtu.be


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
A new way to look for life-sustaining planets

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Function identified of 'mystery protein' that kills brain cells of people with Parkinson's

Function identified of mystery protein that kills brain cells of people with Parkinsons
2021-02-10
A study published in Nature Communications today (Wednesday 10 February) presents a compelling new evidence about what a key protein called alpha-synuclein actually does in neurons in the brain. Dr Giuliana Fusco, Research Fellow at St John's College, University of Cambridge, and lead author of the paper, said: "This study could unlock more information about this debilitating neurodegenerative disorder that can leave people unable to walk and talk. If we want to cure Parkinson's, first we need to understand the function of alpha-synuclein, a protein present in everyone's brains. ...

Scientists propose three-step method to reverse significant reforestation side effect

2021-02-10
While deforestation levels have decreased significantly since the turn of the 21st century, the United Nations (UN) estimates that 10 million hectares of trees have been felled in each of the last five years. Aside from their vital role in absorbing CO2 from the air, forests play an integral part in maintaining the delicate ecosystems that cover our planet. Efforts are now underway across the world to rectify the mistakes of the past, with the UN Strategic Plan for Forests setting out the objective for an increase in global forest coverage by 3% by 2030. With time being of the essence, one of the most popular methods of reforestation in humid, tropical regions ...

Pre-COVID subway air polluted from DC to Boston, but New York region's is the worst

2021-02-10
Commuters now have yet another reason to avoid packing themselves into subway stations. New York City's transit system exposes riders to more inhaled pollutants than any other metropolitan subway system in the Northeastern United States, a new study finds. Yet even its "cleaner" neighbors struggle with enough toxins to give health-conscious travelers pause. Led by NYU Grossman School of Medicine researchers, the study measured air quality samples in 71 stations at morning and evening rush hours in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. ...

Rabies treatment demonstrated as safe and effective for use in children in first pediatric trial

2021-02-10
A treatment, known as KEDRAB (Rabies Immune Globulin [Human]), currently used in the prevention of rabies has been demonstrated to be safe and effective for patients age 17 and under. Results published today in Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics report the first and only pediatric trial of any human rabies immunoglobulin (HRIG) currently available in the US. Findings have been submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration for review. In the United States, someone is treated for possible exposure to rabies every 10 minutes. Globally, the World ...

How research on chronic illnesses will improve COVID-19 treatment

2021-02-10
A new paper in Oxford Open Immunology, published by Oxford University Press, examines prior findings in the field of neuroimmunology that suggest potential treatment strategies for patients suffering long-term symptoms from COVID-19. Though COVID-19 was initially believed to be a short-term illness, lasting between one and three weeks, it's clear that a substantial number of patients will experience symptoms beyond that, with some patients suffering from health problems for more 12 weeks. In fact, for patients who were initially hospitalized, more than 80% reported at least one symptom that persisted beyond the first month. The symptoms of long-COVID can vary widely, ...

Cataloguing genetic information about yams

Cataloguing genetic information about yams
2021-02-10
Yams are a staple food in West Africa, which produces over 90% of the world's yams each year. Yams play a key role in the food security, economic income, and traditional culture for the region. While they are commonly assumed to be the same as sweet potatoes in the U.S., yams are a completely different plant. The yam tubers are much starchier and drier compared to sweet potatoes. Yams are native to Africa and Asia, and most Americans have never had a true yam. Even though yam is a staple crop for West Africa, there has been limited research to improve the genetic diversity or productivity. Researcher Shinsuke Yamanaka focuses on improving crop breeding resources for ...

Stable armchairlike hexazine N6 ring in tungsten hexanitride

Stable armchairlike hexazine N6 ring in tungsten hexanitride
2021-02-10
Tungsten hexanitride with armchairlike hexazine N6 ring has been synthesized by a group of scientists led by Dr. Jin Liu and his former postdoc Nilesh Salke at HPSTAR (Center for High Pressure Science & Technology Advanced Research). WN6 is a promising high-energy-density and superhard material. Their findings are published in the recent issue of Physical Review Letters. Diatomic nitrogen is the most abundant molecule in Earth's atmosphere accounting for almost 78% volume. The strong triple bond in nitrogen makes it very stable and unreactive at near ambient conditions. However, in the intense-pressure and high-temperature conditions, nitrogen will behave entirely differently, it can form double- or even single-bonded structure or react with other elements ...

Research reveals why plant diversity is so important for bee diversity

Research reveals why plant diversity is so important for bee diversity
2021-02-10
As abundant and widespread bees, it is common to see both bumble bees and honey bees foraging on the same flower species during the summer, whether in Britain or many other countries. Yet researchers at the Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects (LASI) at the University of Sussex, have found that different bees dominate particular flower species and revealed why. By studying 22 flower species in southern England and analysing the behaviour of more than 1000 bees, they found that 'energy efficiency' is a key factor when it comes to mediating competition. Bee bodyweight and the rate at which a bee visits flowers determine how energy efficient they are. Bodyweight determines the energy used while flying and walking between flowers, with a bee ...

Brazil: Air conditioning equipment days of use will double without climate action

Brazil: Air conditioning equipment days of use will double without climate action
2021-02-10
Space cooling already accounts for 14% of residential electricity demand in Brazil, and it is expected to increase further because of climate change. Very few studies investigate the relationship between climate change, cooling needs, and electricity demand. In a new study in Energy and Buildings, a team of researchers from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and CMCC@Ca'Foscari - a joint program of Ca'Foscari University of Venice and CMCC Foundation - investigate how climate and income during the period 1970-2010 shaped cooling services in Brazil. This historical relationship allows projecting the resulting energy demand for cooling services across three warming scenarios: +1.5°C, +2°C, +4°C. The study shows ...

Emerging robotics technology may lead to better buildings in less time

Emerging robotics technology may lead to better buildings in less time
2021-02-10
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Emerging robotics technology may soon help construction companies and contractors create buildings in less time at higher quality and at lower costs. Purdue University innovators developed and are testing a novel construction robotic system that uses an innovative mechanical design with advances in computer vision sensing technology to work in a construction setting. The technology was developed with support from the National Science Foundation. "Our work helps to address workforce shortages in the construction industry by automating key construction operations," said Jiansong Zhang, an assistant professor of construction ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Deaf male mosquitoes don’t mate

Recognizing traumatic brain injury as a chronic condition fosters better care over the survivor’s lifetime

SwRI’s Dr. James Walker receives Distinguished Scientist Award from Hypervelocity Impact Society

A mother’s health problems pose a risk to her children

Ensuring a bright future for diamond electronics and sensors

The American Pediatric Society selects Dr. Maria Trent as the Recipient of the 2025 David G. Nichols Health Equity Award

The first 3D view of the formation and evolution of globular clusters

Towards a hydrogen-powered future: highly sensitive hydrogen detection system

Scanning synaptic receptors: A game-changer for understanding psychiatric disorders

High-quality nanomechanical resonators with built-in piezoelectricity

ERC Synergy Grants for 57 teams tackling major scientific challenges

Nordic research team receives €13 million to explore medieval book culture 

The origin of writing in Mesopotamia is tied to designs engraved on ancient cylinder seals

Explaining science through dance

Pioneering neuroendocrinologist's century of discovery launches major scientific tribute series

Gendered bilingualism in post-colonial Korea

Structural safety monitoring of buildings with color variations

Bio-based fibers could pose greater threat to the environment than conventional plastics

Bacteria breakthrough could accelerate mosquito control schemes

Argonne to help drive AI revolution in astronomy with new institute led by Northwestern University

Medicaid funding for addiction treatment hasn’t curbed overdose deaths

UVA co-leads $2.9 million NIH investigation into where systems may fail people with disabilities

With the help of AI, UC Berkeley researchers confirm Hollywood is getting more diverse

Weight loss interventions associated with improvements in several symptoms of PCOS

Federal government may be overpaying for veterans’ health care in Medicare Advantage plans

Researchers awarded $2.5 million grant to increase lung cancer screenings in underserved communities

New trigger proposed for record-smashing 2022 Tonga eruption

Lupus Research Alliance announces Lupus Research Highlights at ACR Convergence 2024

Satellite imagery may help protect coastal forests from climate change

The secrets of baseball's magic mud

[Press-News.org] A new way to look for life-sustaining planets
New capabilities developed by an international team of astronomers make it possible to directly image planets that could potentially harbor life within the habitable zone of a neighboring star system