Latest news with #OGLE-2016-BLG-0007
India Today
05-05-2025
- Science
- India Today
Does Earth 2.0 exist? New discovery points to yes
Does Earth 2.0 exist? New discovery points to yes 05 May, 2025 Credit: Nasa, Getty Using the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet), scientists found that super-Earths—planets larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune—are more common in the universe than previously believed. New Discovery The discovery was made using microlensing, a method that detects planets by observing how their gravity bends and brightens the light of a distant star. Microlensing Technique One such planet, OGLE-2016-BLG-0007, has twice Earth's mass and orbits farther from its star than Saturn does from the sun. Key Finding The study grouped exoplanets into two broad types—super-Earths/Neptune-like planets and gas giants—and found that roughly one in three stars likely hosts a super-Earth with a wide orbit. Planet Patterns These findings give new insights into how planetary systems form, but researchers say more data is needed to confirm which planet formation theories are correct. Scientific Impact The study was led by teams in China, Korea, and the U.S., including scientists at Ohio State University who helped design the KMTNet cameras. It was published in Science and supported by multiple international science institutions. Global Effort
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Super-Earth exoplanets more common across universe than thought: Study
A team of scientists has discovered that super-Earth exoplanets are more common across the universe than previously team studied light anomalies made by the newly found planet's host star and combined their results with a larger sample from the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) microlensing survey. Researchers came to the conclusion that super-Earths can exist as far from their host star as our gas giants are from the sun."Scientists knew there were more small planets than big planets, but in this study, we were able to show that within this overall pattern, there are excesses and deficits," said Andrew Gould, co-author of the study and professor emeritus of astronomy at The Ohio State University. Researchers have also stressed that it can be relatively easy to locate worlds that orbit close to their star, planets with wider paths can be difficult to detect. Still, scientists further estimated that for every three stars, there should be at least one super-Earth present with a Jupiter-like orbital period, suggesting these massive worlds are extremely prevalent across the in the journal Science, the study highlights that exoplanets classified as super-Earths are commonly observed on short-period orbits, close to their host stars, but their abundance on wider orbits is poorly constrained. Gravitational microlensing is sensitive to exoplanets on wide orbits."We observed the microlensing event OGLE-2016-BLG-0007, which indicates an exoplanet with a planet-to-star mass ratio roughly double the Earth-Sun mass ratio, on an orbit longer than Saturn's," said researchers in the study."We combined this event with a larger sample from a microlensing survey to determine the distribution of mass ratios for planets on wide orbits. We infer that there are ~0.35 super-Earth planets per star on Jupiter-like orbits. The observations are most consistent with a bimodal distribution, with separate peaks for super-Earths and gas giants. We suggest that this reflects differences in their formation processes." The findings in this study were made via microlensing, an observational effect that occurs when the presence of mass warps the fabric of space-time to a detectable degree. When a foreground object, such as a star or planet, passes between an observer and a more distant star, light is curved from the source, causing an apparent increase in the object's brightness that can last anywhere from a few hours to several months, according to a press release. Researchers stressed that astronomers can use these fluctuations, or bumps, in brightness to help locate alien worlds unlike our own. In this case, microlensing signals were used to locate OGLE-2016-BLG-0007, a super-Earth with a mass ratio roughly double that of Earth's and an orbit wider than Saturn's.
Time of India
27-04-2025
- Science
- Time of India
New research reveals super-Earths are common in distant orbits
Microlensing reveals distant worlds Live Events Challenging old theories Global collaboration and technology Fresh insights into planetary evolution (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel A recent international study has found that super-Earth exoplanets — those larger than Earth but smaller than Uranus or Neptune — are significantly more common across the universe than previously research team, led by astronomers from Ohio State University , Harvard University, and institutions in China and Korea, uncovered evidence that these planets are not restricted to tight orbits around their stars. Instead, many can exist as far out as Jupiter does in our own solar discovery was made through gravitational microlensing , a method that detects the bending and magnification of a distant star's light caused by an intervening object such as a planet. This allowed the team to spot OGLE-2016-BLG-0007, a super-Earth around twice the mass of our own planet, orbiting at a distance wider than Saturn's."This study suggests that for every three stars, there is likely at least one super-Earth with a Jupiter-like orbital period," said Andrew Gould, professor emeritus of astronomy at Ohio State University and co-author of the study. He added, "We are beginning to realise just how abundant these massive worlds are across the cosmos."By leveraging microlensing, astronomers have opened a window into finding planets that standard detection methods often miss, particularly those in more distant most striking is how the findings challenge long-standing models of planetary formation . Traditionally, scientists believed that gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn grew through a process called runaway gas accretion. This study suggests the picture might be more complicated."We cannot yet distinguish between the two leading theories of planet formation," explained Gould. "While the dominant theory suggests gas-giant formation occurs through runaway gas accretion, other researchers propose a combination of accretion and gravitational instability. Our study adds to the complexity of these models."The results suggest that both formation pathways might be active in different environments, forcing scientists to rethink assumptions about how planets form across different types of star research would not have been possible without the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet), a system of telescopes located in South Africa, Chile, and Australia. This network was designed to observe millions of stars continuously, searching for rare microlensing such events is no small task. "Finding a microlensing star event is already difficult. Finding one with a planet is even harder," said Richard Pogge, a co-author of the study and professor of astronomy at Ohio State University. He added, "We need to observe hundreds of millions of stars to detect even a handful of these microlensing signals."The technology powering KMTNet's precise measurements was built at Ohio State's Imaging Sciences Laboratory, ensuring that every fleeting anomaly could be captured and date, only 237 exoplanets have been discovered using microlensing, out of over 5,000 identified through various methods. However, astronomers are confident that improvements in technology will make detecting such distant planets increasingly the discovery of more super-Earths, the study offers broader insights into the architecture of planetary systems . It highlights that planets can be grouped by mass and composition, and points to gaps in the distribution of certain types of planets."This study was a major step forward," said Gould, adding, "Scientists have long known that smaller planets are more common than large ones, but within this pattern, we've found excesses and deficits, offering new insights into planetary distribution."Understanding these gaps could help scientists piece together how planets form, migrate, and survive in their cosmic environments. It also brings us closer to answering bigger questions about how common Earth-like worlds — and perhaps life — might be."We're reconstructing not only the history of the universe but also the processes that govern it," said Pogge. "Bringing these pieces together into a coherent picture has been incredibly rewarding."Published in the journal Science, the study marks a significant milestone in exoplanet research . It was supported by several key institutions, including the National Science Foundation, Tsinghua University, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for global collaborations strengthening and technologies sharpening, astronomers expect even more surprising discoveries about the types and distributions of planets orbiting distant new finding not only deepens our knowledge of the universe but also expands the possibilities for future exploration and, perhaps one day, the search for life beyond Earth.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists discover super-Earth exoplanets are more common in the universe than we thought
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Astronomers have discovered that "super-Earth" planets may exist on wider orbits than previously thought — and this implies these rocky, or "terrestrial," worlds are far more common than was suspected. Super-Earths, in short, are planets with masses up to 10 times that of our planet, but still less than the masses of gas giant planets. The discovery came after a small extrasolar planet, or "exoplanet," in a wide orbit around its star was discovered, courtesy of a gravitational "microlensing" event designated OGLE-2016-BLG-0007. This event indicated the exoplanet had a planet-to-star mass ratio that roughly doubles the Earth-sun mass ratio. "We found a small planet in an orbit similar to Saturn's. This planet is part of a larger sample that shows super-Earth planets between the orbits of Earth and Saturn are abundant," team member Jennifer Yee of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian told "The abundance of super-Earths was a surprise." Yee explained that scientists previously knew from data delivered by the Kepler space telescope mission that super-Earths are common around other stars, but only within a distance from their respective stars equivalent to the distance between Earth and the sun. That expected distance is represented by one astronomical unit (au). This new work, however, shows that super-Earths are also common at larger distances from their host stars, in this case around 10 au (or 10 times the distance between our planet and the sun). "Previously, there were only upper limits on the numbers of super-Earths [in wide orbits], and there was a suggestion that they might not exist at all," Yee continued. When factoring in this super-Earth data, the team calculated that there should be around 0.35 super-Earth planets per star on wide Jupiter-like orbits. Yee explained that the overall distribution of planetary mass ratios could reflect the specifics of planet formation processes. "Specifically, the distribution suggests that the planets can be separated into two populations, one of super-Earths and Neptunes and one of more massive gas giant planets," Yee added. The team suspects this division in populations reflects the differences in formation processes between terrestrial planets and massive gas giant a larger population of super-Earths in Jupiter-like and Saturn-like orbits could also have implications for our understanding of so-called "habitable zones" around other stars. Habitable zones are defined as regions around stars that are temperate enough to allow liquid water to exist at the surfaces of terrestrial planets within the area. Any closer to a star than its habitable zone band, and a planet's liquid water evaporates. Further away, it freezes. This is why habitable zones are also called "Goldilocks zones" (like the perfect bear's porridge, liquid water is neither too hot nor too cold in these zones). Though Jupiter and Saturn are outside the solar system's habitable zone, super-Earths in similar orbits around hotter stars could fit within such regions — if they are extended. "The habitable zone region where we expect to find life in other planetary systems is extremely narrow. Our expectations regarding this zone have been driven by our own planet because that is the only place where we have definitively detected life, so far," Yee said. "Nature continuously surprises us."Yee added that the best way to understand the habitable zone region around stars in general is to measure the properties of the larger planet population. "This gives more room for the unexpected," Yee said. "This measurement of the super-Earth population provides a new piece of the habitable zone picture, which will ultimately contribute to our characterization of the population of Earth-like planets." Yee and colleagues made this discovery using the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet), consisting of three sites in Chile, South Africa and Australia. The three telescopes in three different time zones mean KMTNet can allow astronomers to monitor the night sky uninterrupted over the southern hemisphere. "This discovery of this planet wasn't a surprise because KMTNet was designed to do this, but it is extremely exciting because it proves KMTNet is capable of routinely finding smaller planets, which is a requirement for understanding planet populations," Yee hunts exoplanets using a phenomenon first predicted by Albert Einstein in his 1915 theory of gravity, general relativity. General relativity suggests objects with mass cause the fabric of space and time to "warp," with gravity arising from this curvature. When light passes by this curvature, its light gets curved, too. That means when a body of mass comes between Earth and a background light source, the image of that source is warped, magnified, or even multiplied upon reaching our instruments. A planetary system acting as a gravitational lens and coming between Earth and a background source can cause a tiny distortion in that source, a situation called "microlensing." "It is a funny coincidence of physics," Yee said. "Microlensing is good at finding planets near the Einstein radius [the characteristic angle for gravitational lensing]."This radius is set by the mass of the lensing planetary system, including its star, the distance from Earth to that lens system, and the distance from Earth to the background source whose light is distorted. "In fact, it was the realization of this coincidence in the early 1990s that led to the first microlensing planet searches," Yee added. Related Stories: — Scientists discover bizarre double-star system with exoplanet on a sideways orbit (video) — Does exoplanet K2-18b host alien life or not? Here's why the debate continues — Earth-size planet discovered around cool red dwarf star shares its name with a biscuit The team will now continue to use KMTNet and gravitational lensing to hunt for lensing planetary systems in an attempt to discover more super-Earths in wide orbits. "We are working on increasing the size of the planet sample by including more seasons of KMTNet data in the analysis," Yee concluded. "We are also working on improving the quality of the data reductions to allow us to find weaker planetary signals."The team's research was published on Thursday (April 24) in the journal Science.
