First Potential Radio signal from Exo planet

An international team of scientists have collected the first possible radio signal from an exoplanet. The exoplanet is 51 light years away from the earth.

What is unique about the Exoplanet?

This is possibly the first radio signal received from a planet beyond solar system. The signals were received by a Low Frequency Array radio telescope located in Netherlands. The exo-planet is located in the Tau Bootes star-system. It hosts Jupiter like giant planet and the planet is close to its star. Also, the team of scientists have discovered an exoplanet in the star system that is emitting radio signals.

Tau Bootes

The Tau Bootes is a binary star system with an exoplanet. The discovery of radio waves in the exo-planet of the star system will open up a new way examine the alien world. The radio waves help to learn about the magnetic field of the planet. This will in turn help the astronomers to decipher the interior of the planet and also study about its atmospheric properties.

For instance, the magnetic field of the earth protects from solar winds and makes it habitable.

Exoplanets

• They are planets outside the solar system.
• Doppler Spectroscopy and Transit Photometry are the best methods to detect Exoplanets.
• Exoplanets are hard to detect as they are close to the stars they are orbiting. Thus, the brightness of the stars prevents from being detected easily.

Transit Photometry

When a planet passes in front of its star, it is called transit. Whenever the planet passes in front of the star, a small amount of light from its star is obstructed. Therefore, there will be reduction in the brightness of the star. By calculating the change in brightness of the stars help in evaluating the size of the planet.

Doppler Spectroscopy

It is an indirect method. The method computes the size of the planet by calculating periodic shift in the radial velocity. Also, the change in spectrum of the exoplanets are used to calculate their size.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2020