Exoplanets

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soars upward after lifting off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

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In: Exoplanets, Observatory, Photometry, TESS

TESS launched this week.   Not many minutes after lift-off on a SpaceX Falcon 9, it was in space.  It will find tens of thousands of new planets, but will need help from the ground.  PEST has been gearing up for this support role since March last year.Read More →

Artist’s impression of LHS 1140b transiting its host, a small, faint red star. Depicted in blue is the atmosphere the planet may have retained. Credit: M. Weiss/CfA

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In: Discoveries, Exoplanets

There is a new top candidate for the best place to search for life outside our Solar System.  Announced in Nature on April 20th 2017, LHS 1140b is a super-Earth in the habitable zone of a nearby small star.  This is the story of that discovery and the role PEST played.Read More →

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In: Exoplanets, Photometry

Astronomers sometimes blithely talk about ‘bright’ stars.  If an exoplanet transits a bright star, we will be able to measure the the parameters of the planet, eg mass and radius to greater precision, and perhaps to sniff its atmosphere.   But in everyday terms, how bright are these stars?Read More →