Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Exoplanets in STEREO Update
HD2638 lightcurve, Image credit and copyright: CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Glenn White of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, who is seriously hunting exoplanets with the STEREO SECCHI instruments, kindly provided a link to the HD2638 light curve they generated. No detectable transits. It turns out that the usable limit for exoplanet detection is around magnitude 8, and it's a lot harder than I thought (and I thought it would be pretty hard at that).
Still, it is possible, people are working on it and STEREO turns out to be an even more amazing instrument.
Glenn White of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, who is seriously hunting exoplanets with the STEREO SECCHI instruments, kindly provided a link to the HD2638 light curve they generated. No detectable transits. It turns out that the usable limit for exoplanet detection is around magnitude 8, and it's a lot harder than I thought (and I thought it would be pretty hard at that).
Still, it is possible, people are working on it and STEREO turns out to be an even more amazing instrument.
Labels: exoplanet, Stereo Satellite