File:Being ExTrA- how to find Earth-like planets (potw2414a).jpg
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[edit]DescriptionBeing ExTrA- how to find Earth-like planets (potw2414a).jpg |
English: Tucked away in ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, this humble telescope is one of three in the groundbreaking French ExTrA project, discovering stars with Earth-like planets in the Milky Way and probing their environments. But how do these triplets tell us so much about systems many light-years away?When a planet orbiting its host star passes between it and the Earth, it blocks a small but detectable amount of light, similar to how the Moon blocks light from the Sun in a solar eclipse. ExTrA targets red dwarf stars, which are smaller than our Sun. This means that Earth-sized planets will block a larger proportion of their total light and are therefore easier to find. Even better, ExTrA observes these red dwarfs across a range of colours to learn more about a planet’s atmosphere, using a method called spectroscopy. The best contenders can be studied in greater detail with ESO’s Very Large Telescope and the upcoming ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope, both located further north, to tell whether they may be viable to support life. So ExTrA may find new candidates for our first galactic neighbors! |
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Date | 1 April 2024 (upload date) | ||
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Author | ESO/A. Ghizzi Panizza (www.albertoghizzipanizza.com) | ||
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This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.
Credit/Provider | ESO/A. Ghizzi Panizza (www.albertoghizzipanizza.com) |
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Source | European Southern Observatory |
Author | ALBERTO GHIZZI PANIZZA |
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Date and time of data generation | 06:00, 1 April 2024 |
JPEG file comment | Tucked away in ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, this humble telescope is one of three in the groundbreaking French ExTrA project, discovering stars with Earth-like planets in the Milky Way and probing their environments. But how do these triplets tell us so much about systems many light-years away? When a planet orbiting its host star passes between it and the Earth, it blocks a small but detectable amount of light, similar to how the Moon blocks light from the Sun in a solar eclipse. ExTrA targets red dwarf stars, which are smaller than our Sun. This means that Earth-sized planets will block a larger proportion of their total light and are therefore easier to find. Even better, ExTrA observes these red dwarfs across a range of colours to learn more about a planet’s atmosphere, using a method called spectroscopy. The best contenders can be studied in greater detail with ESO’s Very Large Telescope and the upcoming ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope, both located further north, to tell whether they may be viable to support life. So ExTrA may find new candidates for our first galactic neighbors! |
Serial number of camera | 6002916 |
Lens used | 0.0 mm f/0.0 |
Software used | ACDSee Ultimate 2023 |
Date and time of digitizing | 12:43, 10 December 2022 |
Rating (out of 5) | 0 |
File change date and time | 21:12, 8 January 2023 |
Date metadata was last modified | 21:12, 8 January 2023 |
Unique ID of original document | A548178E42331E14F9BEB9ADD6447BB6 |
Keywords | ExTrA |
Contact information |
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2 Garching bei München, None, D-85748 Germany |