NASA About To Weigh The Galaxy With An Exoplanet Scale

Anil - Feb 04, 2020


NASA About To Weigh The Galaxy With An Exoplanet Scale

This could help NASA find out whether an area in outer space is suitable for human living or not.

Last week, an exoplanet scale developed by NASA which can measure the weight of the galaxy was introduced under the name of NN - EXPLORE Exoplanet Investigations with Doppler spectroscopy (NEID). The first task of it was observing the 51 Pegasi star system which was the home of the first exoplanet being discovered by the human being. 

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The scale which is located at southern Arizona’s Kitt Peak National Observatory is three times more sensitive than the other exoplanet scales in current operation. Therefore, it is able to collect data about exoplanets that have the same sizes to the Earth. Importantly, even though NEID is a huge scale, it does not work like the one you use to fear of being overweight. 

Exoplanets’ orbital stars are exerted and tugged by their planets’ gravity, leading to the change and wobble in velocity. These stars’ speed changes are recorded and analyzed by NEID, which can contribute to the experts’ identification of the weight of anything that could orbit them. 

Our Milky Way’s sun is also affected by gravitational effects. It is exemplified by the Earth’s gravity that makes the sun shake backward and forward at a pace of 0.2 miles per hour. Jupiter also influences on the sun, which causes it to wobble quicker at a speed estimated at 29 miles per hour. 

Currently, most devices are not qualified enough to calculate the adaptation in velocity except those less than 2 miles per hour. However, the new NEID will possibly follow the pace as low as 0.6 miles per hour, which creates more opportunities for astronomers to track much tinier exoplanets. 

In order to analyze the starlight that went through the WIYN telescope of Kitt Peak Observatory, NEID needs to be located in particular conditions. According to a press recent publish, it must be set up at an accurate temperature, which can be kept unchanged within a thousandth of a degree. 

Together with data collected from satellites like TESS that can scan faraway star systems, NEID’s analysis of those mysterious planets that seem beyond the horizon will be illustrated vividly. As a result, that a planet’s density can be understood and constrained accurately makes great progress in scientists’ studies of its atmospheric condition, which could help NASA find out whether an area in outer space is suitable for human living or not.

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