Telescope CoRoT discovered ten exoplanets(photo)
Mariana Puzderi/ Chișinău / Moldova.ORG / -- Space telescope CoRoT discovered ten new exoplanets, says "Kompyulenta" referring to the conference on the work of the telescope.
The total number of planets detected by the 27-centimeter telescope, since its launch in December 2006, reached 26. The existence of these objects is confirmed by observations from Earth by extrasolar planet candidates that are waiting for verification, CoRoT found many more.
In the submitted list of previously unknown celestial bodies are seven "hot Jupiters", an object, a bit smaller than the Saturn, and a pair of planets (CoRoT-24b and CoRoT-24c), which revolve around the same star. "The first element of this binary system has a three times greater radius than the Earth and revolves around the Sun for 5.1 days, and the radius of its larger companion, which year lasts 11.8 days, is 4.8 Earth - says a CoRoT collaboration participant, Eygreyn Susan, a teacher at Oxford University. - It follows that both planets are similar in size to the Neptune. We can not estimate the composition of matter , because we know only the upper limits of both the mass of bodies. " It remains to add that CoRoT-24b and CoRoT-24c are about 4400 light years away from us.
CoRoT-22b, whose radius is 0.74 Saturn, is located even closer, at two thousand light years from the Earth. One complete revolution in its orbit takes about ten days. "Here we are also able to determine only the upper mass limit - says Ms. Eygreyn. - But the density of CoRoT-22b, in any case, will not be substantially higher than of the Jupiter. "
The exoplanets CoRoT-17b and CoRoT-18b are located in a subset of the new "hot Jupiters" . The last one is interesting because its star is very young and was formed only 600 million years ago. The radius of CoRoT-18b is 1.4 Jupiter and the mass is greater than the Jupiter's three and a half times. It is easy to calculate that the planet has a high density.
CoRoT-17b, in contrast, is associated with an old star, whose age is equal to 10,7 ± 1,0 billion years. One circle in its orbit, the planet, which radius adjusts almost perfectly to the Jupiter's, but considerably more massive than our gas giant, runs for 3.8 days.
The other "hot Jupiters" are not so noticeable, but some unusual characteristics can be found in them, too. CoRoT-16b, for example, moves towards a 5.3-day orbit around the "Old" for up to six billion years to our Sun analogue, it's orbit has an elongated shape, which is unusual for a planet so close to the luminary. Elongated orbit has also been noticed at exoplanet CoRoT-20b, which differs as density, twice greater than the Martian, which is very unusual for a gas giant.
CoRoT-19b, whose radius is 1.5 Jupiter, with a mass much inferior even to Saturn, the least dense giant in our solar system. A distinctive feature of the exoplanet called CoRoT-21b is that it revolves around a very dim star. In order to determine the mass of CoRoT-21b (2,5 Jupiter), the astronomers had to carry out observations with a huge 10-meter telescope of the Keck Observatory.
On the tenth new planet, CoRoT-23b, it is reported only that it moves along a 3.6-day orbit.
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