Andrew Yee[_1_]
November 12th 07, 06:21 AM
Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes
La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain
Contact:
Javier Mendez, Public Relations Officer
jma @ ing.iac.es
8th November, 2007
SuperWASP Finds a Strongly-Irradiated Transiting Gas-Giant Exoplanet
The WASP and SOPHIE collaboration has announced the discovery of WASP-3b,
one of the hottest exoplanets discovered so far. At a temperature of more
than 1700 degrees Celsius WASP-3b has the potential to place stringent
constraints on exoplanet atmospheric models.
The first transits of WASP-3b were detected by the SuperWASP cameras in the
Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory, La Palma. The transits were then
confirmed by the IAC80 telescope in Izana Observatory, Tenerife, as part of
the Canarian Observatories' International Time Programme for 2007, and by
the University of Keele 60-cm telescope. The discovery confirmation, using
the radial velocity method, came from data obtained with the SOPHIE
spectrograph on the Observatoire de Haute-Provence's 1.93m telescope.
Observations made with the adaptive-optics system NAOMI+INGRID on the
William Herschel Telescope were used to exclude the possibility of a nearby
eclipsing-binary system being the cause of the transits. WASP-3, the host
star, lies at approximately 220 parsecs or 720 light years and no companion
stars were found to lie within 45 astronomical units of WASP-3.
WASP-3b has a mass of 1.6-1.8 Jupiter masses and it transists its host star
every 1.8 days, one of the shortest orbital periods yet discovered. The
finding of Jupiter-mass planets around other stars supports the idea that
Earth-sized planets can also form and be detected as astronomers' technology
improves.
The Wide Area Search for Planets (WASP) is the first team to detect planets
in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere using the transit method, and
it is also the most ambitious project in the world designed to discover
large planets. WASP-3b is the third exoplanet discovered by WASP in the
North. The Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes is a member of the WASP
consortium.
More information:
* D. Pollacco, et. al., 2007, WASP-3b: a strongly-irradiated transiting
gas-giant planet, arXiv:0711.0126v1 [astro-ph].
http://es.arxiv.org/abs/0711.0126
* Three New Planets Announced by UK's Planet Hunters, STFC press release,
31st October, 2007.
http://www.scitech.ac.uk/PMC/PRel/STFC/wasp.aspx
* Detectado uno de los planetas extrasolares mas calientes, IAC press
release, 8th November, 2007.
http://www.iac.es/divulgacion.php?op1=16&id=488
* SuperWASP web site.
http://www.superwasp.org/
IMAGE CAPTION:
[http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/press/planeta_extrasolar_a_01s.jpg (28KB)]
WASP-3b is one of hottest extrasolar planets ever detected. Credit: Artist
impression by IAC's multimedia service.
La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain
Contact:
Javier Mendez, Public Relations Officer
jma @ ing.iac.es
8th November, 2007
SuperWASP Finds a Strongly-Irradiated Transiting Gas-Giant Exoplanet
The WASP and SOPHIE collaboration has announced the discovery of WASP-3b,
one of the hottest exoplanets discovered so far. At a temperature of more
than 1700 degrees Celsius WASP-3b has the potential to place stringent
constraints on exoplanet atmospheric models.
The first transits of WASP-3b were detected by the SuperWASP cameras in the
Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory, La Palma. The transits were then
confirmed by the IAC80 telescope in Izana Observatory, Tenerife, as part of
the Canarian Observatories' International Time Programme for 2007, and by
the University of Keele 60-cm telescope. The discovery confirmation, using
the radial velocity method, came from data obtained with the SOPHIE
spectrograph on the Observatoire de Haute-Provence's 1.93m telescope.
Observations made with the adaptive-optics system NAOMI+INGRID on the
William Herschel Telescope were used to exclude the possibility of a nearby
eclipsing-binary system being the cause of the transits. WASP-3, the host
star, lies at approximately 220 parsecs or 720 light years and no companion
stars were found to lie within 45 astronomical units of WASP-3.
WASP-3b has a mass of 1.6-1.8 Jupiter masses and it transists its host star
every 1.8 days, one of the shortest orbital periods yet discovered. The
finding of Jupiter-mass planets around other stars supports the idea that
Earth-sized planets can also form and be detected as astronomers' technology
improves.
The Wide Area Search for Planets (WASP) is the first team to detect planets
in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere using the transit method, and
it is also the most ambitious project in the world designed to discover
large planets. WASP-3b is the third exoplanet discovered by WASP in the
North. The Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes is a member of the WASP
consortium.
More information:
* D. Pollacco, et. al., 2007, WASP-3b: a strongly-irradiated transiting
gas-giant planet, arXiv:0711.0126v1 [astro-ph].
http://es.arxiv.org/abs/0711.0126
* Three New Planets Announced by UK's Planet Hunters, STFC press release,
31st October, 2007.
http://www.scitech.ac.uk/PMC/PRel/STFC/wasp.aspx
* Detectado uno de los planetas extrasolares mas calientes, IAC press
release, 8th November, 2007.
http://www.iac.es/divulgacion.php?op1=16&id=488
* SuperWASP web site.
http://www.superwasp.org/
IMAGE CAPTION:
[http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/press/planeta_extrasolar_a_01s.jpg (28KB)]
WASP-3b is one of hottest extrasolar planets ever detected. Credit: Artist
impression by IAC's multimedia service.