Date: December 26, 2010
Title: Mexico’s First Exoplanet Discovery Using Life Sciences Algorithm
Podcaster: Edgardo Molina
Organization: Pleiades. Research and Astronomical Studies A.C. www.pleiades.org.mx (web site soon to be presented also in English).
Description: The Astronomy Institute at the UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) announced the discovery of what is Mexico’s first exoplanet. It has been discovered using gathered observational data and correlated using a modeling algorithm for life sciences.
Bio: Edgardo Molina. B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Anahuac University in Mexico City. Post graduate studies in IT Engineering and a Masters Degree in IT Engineering. Working for IPTEL, an IT firm delivering solutions to enterprises since 1998. Space exploration enthusiast who participated in several Mexican space related activities. Licensed amateur radio operator with call sign XE1XUS. Amateur astronomer since childhood and actual founder and president of the Pleiades. Research and Astronomical Studies A.C. in Mexico City, Mexico. Avid visual observer and astrophotography fan. Public reach through education in exact sciences, engineering and astronomy. Lectures and teaching in several universities since 1993.
Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by Mike Smithwick, author of the award winning astronomy software, Distant Suns, now for the iPad and iPhone.
Transcript:
Hi, This is Edgardo Molina, your host again for this episode of the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast. Today I am recording on the road due to an overwhelming work load that prevented me to do it as always from quietness present at home. I hope the ambient noise from a local typical café is not an issue for you kind and understanding audience. From here and with a cup of coffee aside, I am about to present some information on recent research done at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) where the Astronomy Institute gave me good news regarding their recent findings in the pursue of exoplanets.
But being this my last podcast for 2010, I sincerely wish to show my gratitude for all the nice people behind the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast who have been extremely patient with me. I openly promise to improve my participation next year. Thank you Nancy! My very best regards to you and your fantastic team.
Now lets get back on topic.
The Astronomy Institute team discovered recently an exoplanet that orbits the star Upsilon Andromedae, in the constellation that bears that name. This star and exoplanet system is located in the neighborhood of our solar system about 44 light years away from Earth.
According to the international nomenclature the exoplanet has been named Upsilon Adromedae (ups And-e).
This exoplanet is the most closely looking like Jupiter from the ones discovered so far. It shares as Jupiter the size, gaseous content, mass (around 1.06 times that of Jupiter) radio emissions and also the orbital period. The people conforming the team that discovered Mexico’s first exoplanet (I am sorry, it is of course everybody’s exoplanet, but the excitement got me into semantic problems) are:
Salvador Curiel
Jorge Canto
Leonid Georgiev
Carlos Chavez
Arcadio Poveda
All of them full time research personnel at the Astronomy Institute.
The scientific importance of this discovery is that with this body, Upsilon Andromedae is the fifth planetary system known to date with at least four planets. The results of this research will be published in the January 2011 Astronomy and Astrophysics magazine in the article named: “A Fourth Planet orbiting Upsilon Andromedae)
In this same magazine during 2009, Curiel and collegues presented their method used for the exoplanet discovery “Genetic Asexual Algorithm” (AGA). The discovery was possible thanks to the analysis of statistical data gathered for more than 15 years by several international groups.
The star which the new exoplanet orbits is type F8 V and it looks like the Sun and it is almost the same age, with a temperature just above that of our Sun.
The mass of the star is 1.3 times that of the Sun and 1.5 times larger than it.
Due to the closeness of the star Upsilon Andromedae, it can be seen with the unaided eye, no need for a telescope or binoculars, it is roughly located 10 degrees east of the Andromedae Galaxy where it shines showing a yellow color.
The life sciences method:
Despite the fact that that Curiel has been involved in the study of star formation and early stages since 2008, he developed the method along with Jorge Canto and Elizabeth Martinez also from the Astronomy Institute. The AGA method may be used to analyze all kinds of data -not only astronomical- and adjust the theoretical models to it.
With this method the planetary orbits are adjusted and you get the parameters that better describe them, it is also possible to get the minimum mass of the planets.
The AGA method is based on genetic strategies of living creatures to reach the optimum individual or the most apt, in this case the model that best represents a set of data.
The novelty of this method as explained by Curiel, is that it uses an asexual strategy, as the behaviour found in bacteria, and opposed to sexual, as it happens in the vast majority of living creatures included the human beings.
This method is easy to implement and very robust, it is feed with a great amount of statistical data. The use of an asexual strategy means that departing from an individual (in this case a celestial object) others can be born, while the sexual strategy combines two individuals (male and female) to achieve reproduction.
To look for exoplanets, the astronomers considered the gravitational pull that the planets produce at the moment or orbiting a star.
It is common to think that the central star (in our case the Sun) is the one pulling the planets, but orbital mechanics shows us that the planets also have a gravitational influence on the star and make it wooble. This is clearly explained in the Two Body Problem that is the base of orbital mechanics.
A planetless star will be static from our point of view, or moving in a straight line with a constant speed. But if there are planets orbiting it, the movement is altered due to the fact that the star also has to orbit around the common center of mass of the star-planet system.
The gravitational pull is observed from Earth as a change in radial velocity of the star, which is detected as a wooble. As if the star would be moving back and forth in a periodic motion. This is one of the methods used nowadays to detect and discover exoplanets.
If this motion is studied in detail, it is possible to detect the presence of planets in the neighborhood of the star and it allows also to calculate the planet orbital parameters, distance to the star and it’s mass.
With the AGA method and the detection of star wooble, the astronomers are looking for a fifth planet orbiting Upsilon Andromedae but they strengthen their scientific data before proving the existence of the exoplanet.
For the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast. This is Edgardo Molina. From Pleiades. Research and Astronomical Studies in Mexico City Mexico wishing you happy holidays and clear skies. Thank you for your time and patience throughout 2010!
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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