Quote:
Originally Posted by CraigS
Interesting (Thanks Ron);
It seems they're hypothesising that the planet exists in the first place:
“We also have good reasons to believe that two other planets are present, says Lovis".
I guess they can deduce its mass from the "wobble of only 3 km/hour", (if they can measure that), but they kind of skimmed over the bit on how they came to the conclusion that this planet is "a hot, rocky planet, similar to Corot-7b".
There was a stage when they were looking for the atmosphere trails left behind these exoplanets, to work out their chemical composition. I wonder whether they've used this technique on any of these discoveries ?
Have to see if we can get the paper & have a read.
Interesting ... thanks again.
Cheers
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A 3kmh radial velocity difference in the spectral lines is hard to detect but it is detectable.
It's most likely a rocky planet....why....because of its orbital position. A giant planet wouldn't form where the planet is simply because it would've been too hot for any gases like hydrogen and such to accumulate in any sort of amount to create a giant planet. The only material that is robust enough to withstand the temps that would've been present in the inner part of the protoplanetary accretion disk around the star are refractory elements such as iron and other metals, silicates and such. So, any planets that form in these regions are more than likely small terrestrial planets made out of these materials.
Yes, they still look at the atmospheres that are being ablated off from the hot giant planets by their parent stars. I don't think any of these planets are close enough to be undergoing atmospheric ablation. Corot 7b is one of these planets....Chthonic planets....which are basically completely ablated away gas giants. All that's left of the planet is the core, after all of the atmosphere and liquid body of the planet has been evapourated off.