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<\/a> The transit method is where a planet crosses its star from our perspective. This causes a “mini-eclipse”. This is how most planets have been discovered. Credit: UNSW Media.<\/p>\nFocusing on Apsidal Precession<\/p>\n
Apsidal precession is a different way of looking for planets that could slip out of our view. It has been used to understand binary stars and their orbits, but using it for planetary searches is a new approach. It monitors how binary stars orbit and eclipse each other. If there’s a variation in their eclipses, then it could mean that there’s a planet (or some other third body) in the system. <\/p>\n
It turns out that most of what astronomers know about exoplanets is affected by the way they’re found, according to team leader, Margo Thornton, an astronomer and PhD candidate at UNSW. Most worlds are in single-star systems like outs, but she pointed out, systems like ours are in the minority. More than half of the stars in the galaxy are in binary or multiple star systems. “We’ve mostly found the easiest ones to detect,” she said while discussing her group’s new way of searching out circumbinaries.\u201cThis new method could help us uncover a large population of hidden planets, especially those that don\u2019t line up perfectly from our line of sight. It could help reveal what the true population of planets in our Universe might look like.\u201d <\/p>\n
Now that these potential circumbinary planets have been found in the TESS survey, the team has a lot of work ahead of it. \u201cI\u2019m excited about the potential for how many planets we could find with this method,\u201d said Professor Ben Montet, astronomer and senior author on the study. \u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting to find 27 already at this point from the pilot study. \u201cNow we get to start the really fun project of figuring out which ones are real planets.\u201d <\/p>\n Characterizing Circumbinaries<\/p>\n The architecture of circumbinary planets may seem like science fiction. In fact, many people have seen the famous “Tatooine view” of two suns setting on that planet while Luke Skywalker watches them set as he dreams of space adventures. Finding them using the apsidal precession method opens up a whole new area of planetary study, particularly in alien systems. That, in turn, will help planetary scientists figure out how such places come into existence. \u201cWith this method so far, we have 27 strong planet candidates in environments completely unlike our own solar system,\u201d said Ms. Thornton, who made these findings just one year into her PhD. \u201cBy learning more about different types of planets, we can better understand how planets form and evolve, especially in these complex environments with two stars.\u201d <\/p>\n The newly found worlds are a mixed bunch in terms of distance and physical makeup. Some are super-Neptune worlds while others are super-Jupiters. They lie anywhere from 650 light-years away to a distance of 18,000 light-years from Earth. \u201cThe candidates are scattered across both our southern and northern skies,\u201d says Professor Montet. \u201cThis means that any time of the year, no matter when you\u2019re looking, at least one of these star systems is out there visible for you to look towards \u2013 as long as you have a telescope.\u201d <\/p>\n Those distances may seem far from us, but in reality, they’re practically in the same neighborhood of the Milky Way as the Solar System. Montet says that they 27 just-discovered candidate worlds are part of 1590 binary systems nearby that could host worlds. In addition to figuring out their formation histories and evolution, planetary scientists will have to ask how common such circumbinaries are and what the potential is for them to harbor life, according to Professor Montet. \u201cIf circumbinary planets do turn out to be habitable, that means life could be anywhere,” said Montet. “Life could be everywhere. The sheer numbers are really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n For More Information<\/p>\n New Star Wars-like Planet Candidates with Two Suns Discovered<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> The apsidal precession method helps astronomers detect planets the transit method might have missed: for example, planets with an irregular orbit that doesn\u2019t cross their or stars\u2019 orbits from our perspective. Credit: UNSW Media.<\/p>\n<\/a> Could sunset on one of the newly found circumbinaries (or their moons) look like this? Credit: UNSW Media.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThat implies there could potentially be thousands, or tens of thousands, of possible planets to be found with data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory\u2019s new 10-year sky survey, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time,” said Montet. \u201cSo it\u2019s a really exciting first step \u2013 and it also shows that there\u2019s going to be a lot of work to do over the next few years.\u201d <\/p>\n