Well some exciting news out of the planet hunters team over at zooniverse with the confirmation of a new Jupiter sized planet in the habitable zone.
Not only that there is also the announcement of 31 long period planet candidates of which 15 are in the habitable zone.
There is also a watch list of a further 9 candidates who need some more data to make the 3 transits needed for it to be a viable candidate.
Seeing as it's hit the press I figure now I can post it as I have been sitting on the info all week.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...e-8441343.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...=feeds-newsxml
http://blog.planethunters.org/2013/0...et-candidates/
Quote:
We are pleased to announce the discovery and confirmation of our second confirmed planet : PH2 b-a Jupiter-size planet in the habitable zone of a star like the Sun-by the Planet Hunter project. The paper has already been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal and has been made public via arxiv.org.
The estimated surface temperature of 46 degrees Celsius is right for there to be liquid water, but it is extremely unlikely that life exists on PH2 b because it is a gas planet like our Jupiter, and thus there is no solid surface or liquid environment for life to thrive. In order to study this interesting system, we used the HIRES spectrograph and NIRC2 adaptive optics system on the Keck telescopes in Hawaii to obtain both high resolution spectrum and high spatial-resolution images. The observations help us to rule out possible scenarios for false positive detections and give us a measured confidence level of more than 99.9% that PH2 b is a bona-fide planet rather than just an illusion.
In the meantime, we also announce the discoveries of 31 long-period planet candidates with periods more than 100 days, including 15 candidates located in the habitable zones of their host stars. The candidate list is a joint effort between the volunteer Planet Hunters, and the science team. Each individual planet candidate was identified and then discussed on Talk by Planet Hunters. Several dedicated Planet Hunters collected information on candidates and carried out light curve modeling and initial vetting for false positives. The science team then decided the priority of each target on the candidate list and conducted follow-up observations.
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The above paper can be downloaded at arvix ...
http://arxiv.org/abs/1301.0644
or here...
http://zooniverse-resources.s3.amazonaws.com/ph/PH5.pdf
In which there is a link to an acknowledgment page here...
http://www.planethunters.org/LongPeriodCandidates
Where you can find my name sitting proudly amongst the group.
