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ESO 18/06 - Associated Videos
Under Embargo till 17 May, 2006, 19:00 CET
Trio of Neptunes and their Belt
HARPS Instrument Finds Unusual Planetary System
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ESO PR Video 18a/06: 1 min 41 sec [320 x 240 - Quicktime - 16MB] |
| Footage of ESO La Silla Observatory, located in the Atacama Desert in Chile. The Observatory is home to the 3.6-m telescope, equipped with the HARPS spectrograph, the most-precise planet hunter in the world. |
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ESO PR Video 18b/06: 1 min 08 sec [320 x 240 - Quicktime - 8MB] |
| ESO Video 18a/06 shows three computer animations. The first two ones are an artist impression of how the planetary system surrounding the nearby star HD 69830 may look like. The HARPS measurement indeed reveal the presence of three planets with masses between 10 and 18 Earth masses. The planets' mean distance are 0.08, 0.19, and 0.63 the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun. They orbit their parent star in 8.67, 31.6 and 197 days, respectively. From previous observations, it seems that there exists also an asteroid belt, whose location is unknown. It could either lie between the two outermost planets, or farther from its parent star than 0.8 the mean Earth-Sun distance. The second animation illustrates the system, seen from inside the asteroid belt, which is assumed here to lie between the two outermost planets. The third animation illustrates the method used to detect the planets. A planet in orbit around a star will manifest its presence by pulling the star in different directions, thereby changing by rather small amounts its measured velocity. Here, the observer is assumed to be sitting at the right of the image. Using highly accurate spectrographs, like HARPS on the 3.6-m ESO telescope, astronomers therefore measure with the velocity of a star to detect the signature of one or more planets. The amplitude of the shifts provide astronomers with information on the mass of the planets. |
Broadcast Media
The above material is also available in broadcast-quality material either via ftp or on tape. For further information concerning this material, please see the ESO Media Contacts on the Public Affairs Dept. Contact page.