March 22, 2005
Artist's concept of what a fiery hot star and its close-knit planetary companion might look like close up in infrared. |
 |
|
|
(PLANETQUEST) -- NASA's long-range goal of finding Earthlike planets around other stars was brought a step closer to reality with the direct capture of light from two extrasolar planets, a prominent extrasolar planet researcher said this week.
"In the past we've just talked about directly detecting extrasolar planets; now we've started to do it," said Dr. Charles Beichman, executive director of the Michelson Science Center.
Although the method used by Spitzer can't be extended down to Earth-size planets, it represents an important step toward that ultimate goal, Beichman said.
"In the end, most of the information we learn about planets will be from seeing their photons [particles of light]. This is the very first step toward eventually being able to see Earthlike planets, and it's an exciting one," he said.
Over the past decade, more than 140 extrasolar planets have been discovered through indirect evidence. In new studies, announced Wednesday, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope for the first time directly observed the warm infrared glows of two of those planets. (Full story)
"The actual job of detecting Earths is a factor of 1,000 times more difficult than seeing gas giants," Beichman said. "But the very fact that we're able to detect photons from large planets confirms we can directly see planets. A voyage of 1,000 miles starts with the first step, and this is the first step."
NASA has planned a series of future space telescopes that will dramatically extend current capabilities of observing extrasolar planets, including:
- The Kepler Mission, scheduled for launch in 2008, which will determine the prevalence of Earth-size planets in our Milky Way Galaxy;
- SIM PlanetQuest, scheduled for launch in 2011, which will detect planets nearly as small as Earth;
- Terrestrial Planet Finder, which will directly observe planets as small as Earth and search for the signatures of life.
The Michelson Science Center is a science operations and analysis service organization operated by the California Institute of Technology in coordination with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
