Scientists think they've detected radio emissions from an alien world
By Meghan Bartels published December 17, 2020
Similar findings may tell scientists about magnetic fields around exoplanets.
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Scientists may have detected radio emissions from a planet orbiting a star beyond our sun for the first time.
The astronomers behind the new research used a radio telescope in the Netherlands to study three different stars known to host exoplanets. The researchers compared what they saw to observations of Jupiter, diluted as if being seen from a star system dozens of light-years away. And one star system stood out: Tau Boötes, which contains at least one exoplanet. If the detection holds up, it could open the door to better understanding the magnetic fields of exoplanets and therefore the exoplanets themselves, the researchers hope.
"We present one of the first hints of detecting an exoplanet in the radio realm," Jake Turner, an astronomer at Cornell University and lead author of the new research, said in a statement. "We make the case for an emission by the planet itself. From the strength and polarization of the radio signal and the planet's magnetic field, it is compatible with theoretical predictions."
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However, Turner and his colleagues aren't yet positive that the signal they detected really is coming from the planet, dubbed Tau Boötes b; the researchers called for additional observations of the system, which is about 51 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Boötes.
The new research actually began at Jupiter; the researchers had previously studied that planet's radio emissions and then tweaked those measurements to reflect the effect they expected closeness to the host star and distance from Earth would have had on their observations of an exoplanet.
Then, the scientists consulted observations made in 2016 and 2017 by the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) in the Netherlands. In addition to the potential signal from Tau Boötes b, the researchers also report that they may have picked up a signal from the star Upsilon Andromedae or its planet, but that detection was even fainter than the one from Tau Boötes b.
The researchers are interested in detecting radio emission from planets because such information may help scientists decipher what's happening in the same worlds' magnetic fields. Those magnetic fields, in turn, influence conditions on the surface of the planet — Earth's magnetic field protects the atmosphere that makes the world one we can survive, for example. Such magnetic fields can also tell scientists about other qualities of a world, like its structure and history.
An artist's depiction of the exoplanet Tau Boötes b shows a magnetic field, which may cause the radio emissions scientists believe they have detected.
An artist's depiction of the exoplanet Tau Boötes b shows a magnetic field, which may cause the radio emissions scientists believe they have detected. (Image credit: Jack Madden/Cornell University)
But so far, studying those magnetic fields directly has been difficult for scientists to manage, despite the fact that nearly every planet in our solar system has had one at some point in its history. Hence the interest in using radio emissions as an intermediate.
"We learned from our own Jupiter what this kind of detection looks like," Turner said. "We went searching for it and we found it."
But that's just the beginning of the story, not the end of it, he emphasized, since the radio emissions could still be coming from the stars or another source instead of the planet. "There remains some uncertainty that the detected radio signal is from the planet. The need for follow-up observations is critical."
By Meghan Bartels published December 17, 2020
Similar findings may tell scientists about magnetic fields around exoplanets.
Click here for more Space.com videos...
CLOSE
Scientists may have detected radio emissions from a planet orbiting a star beyond our sun for the first time.
The astronomers behind the new research used a radio telescope in the Netherlands to study three different stars known to host exoplanets. The researchers compared what they saw to observations of Jupiter, diluted as if being seen from a star system dozens of light-years away. And one star system stood out: Tau Boötes, which contains at least one exoplanet. If the detection holds up, it could open the door to better understanding the magnetic fields of exoplanets and therefore the exoplanets themselves, the researchers hope.
"We present one of the first hints of detecting an exoplanet in the radio realm," Jake Turner, an astronomer at Cornell University and lead author of the new research, said in a statement. "We make the case for an emission by the planet itself. From the strength and polarization of the radio signal and the planet's magnetic field, it is compatible with theoretical predictions."
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Related: 7 ways to discover alien planets
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However, Turner and his colleagues aren't yet positive that the signal they detected really is coming from the planet, dubbed Tau Boötes b; the researchers called for additional observations of the system, which is about 51 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Boötes.
The new research actually began at Jupiter; the researchers had previously studied that planet's radio emissions and then tweaked those measurements to reflect the effect they expected closeness to the host star and distance from Earth would have had on their observations of an exoplanet.
Then, the scientists consulted observations made in 2016 and 2017 by the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) in the Netherlands. In addition to the potential signal from Tau Boötes b, the researchers also report that they may have picked up a signal from the star Upsilon Andromedae or its planet, but that detection was even fainter than the one from Tau Boötes b.
The researchers are interested in detecting radio emission from planets because such information may help scientists decipher what's happening in the same worlds' magnetic fields. Those magnetic fields, in turn, influence conditions on the surface of the planet — Earth's magnetic field protects the atmosphere that makes the world one we can survive, for example. Such magnetic fields can also tell scientists about other qualities of a world, like its structure and history.
An artist's depiction of the exoplanet Tau Boötes b shows a magnetic field, which may cause the radio emissions scientists believe they have detected.
An artist's depiction of the exoplanet Tau Boötes b shows a magnetic field, which may cause the radio emissions scientists believe they have detected. (Image credit: Jack Madden/Cornell University)
But so far, studying those magnetic fields directly has been difficult for scientists to manage, despite the fact that nearly every planet in our solar system has had one at some point in its history. Hence the interest in using radio emissions as an intermediate.
"We learned from our own Jupiter what this kind of detection looks like," Turner said. "We went searching for it and we found it."
But that's just the beginning of the story, not the end of it, he emphasized, since the radio emissions could still be coming from the stars or another source instead of the planet. "There remains some uncertainty that the detected radio signal is from the planet. The need for follow-up observations is critical."
'Starquakes' shake the surface of thousands of stars, Gaia galaxy mapper reveals
By Tereza Pultarova published 1 day ago
"Blinking stars do offer astronomers a very powerful tool to study their internal physics and chemistry."
The latest release of data from the European Gaia mission reveals our galaxy, the Milky Way, in new colors.
The latest release of data from the European Gaia mission reveals our galaxy, the Milky Way, in new colors. (Image credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC)
The galaxy-mapping mission Gaia has detected thousands of stellar earthquakes that might provide new insights into the inner workings of stars.
The discovery is rather surprising as the spacecraft was not designed to do such work, Conny Aerts, an astronomer at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, said in a European Space Agency (ESA) press conference on Monday, June 13.
"These vibrations make the stellar gas move up and down," Aer
By Tereza Pultarova published 1 day ago
"Blinking stars do offer astronomers a very powerful tool to study their internal physics and chemistry."
The latest release of data from the European Gaia mission reveals our galaxy, the Milky Way, in new colors.
The latest release of data from the European Gaia mission reveals our galaxy, the Milky Way, in new colors. (Image credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC)
The galaxy-mapping mission Gaia has detected thousands of stellar earthquakes that might provide new insights into the inner workings of stars.
The discovery is rather surprising as the spacecraft was not designed to do such work, Conny Aerts, an astronomer at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, said in a European Space Agency (ESA) press conference on Monday, June 13.
"These vibrations make the stellar gas move up and down," Aer
Did China just detect signals from an alien civilization?
By Leonard David published about 1 hour ago
Probably not, experts say.
The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) in southwest China's Guizhou Province.
China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope, or FAST. (Image credit: NAO/FAST)
The internet is abuzz with rumors that China may have picked up signals from an alien civilization.
The news centers on observations by China's "Sky Eye" — the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), which is located in southwestern Guizhou province.
One report, by the state-backed Science and Technology Daily, cited Zhang Tonjie, chief scientist of an extraterrestrial civilization search team co-founded by Beijing Normal University, the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of California, Berkeley.
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By Leonard David published about 1 hour ago
Probably not, experts say.
The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) in southwest China's Guizhou Province.
China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope, or FAST. (Image credit: NAO/FAST)
The internet is abuzz with rumors that China may have picked up signals from an alien civilization.
The news centers on observations by China's "Sky Eye" — the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), which is located in southwestern Guizhou province.
One report, by the state-backed Science and Technology Daily, cited Zhang Tonjie, chief scientist of an extraterrestrial civilization search team co-founded by Beijing Normal University, the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of California, Berkeley.
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Fastest-growing black hole ever seen is devouring the equivalent of 1 Earth per second
By Robert Lea published 38 minutes ago
This behemoth has been powering an ultrabright quasar for 9 billion years.
A black hole and accretion disk
An illustration of a black hole surrounded by an accretion disk feeding it. (Image credit: ESO, ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser)
The fastest-growing black hole ever seen is swallowing the mass equivalent of an entire Earth every second.
This gargantuan black hole has a mass 3 billion times that of the sun, and its rapid consumption is causing the behemoth to grow rapidly, an international research team found. The black hole gorges via a process called accretion, in which it siphons matter from a thin disk of gas and dust rotating around the massive object.
Other black holes of a similar size stopped growing billions of years ago, but this newly discovered black hole is still getting larger. It's now 500 times bigger than Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, and would fit the whole solar system behind its event horizon, the boundary beyond which nothing can escape.
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Based on this information, the researchers determined that the newfound black hole is the most rapidly growing black hole found to exist in the past 9 billion years.
"Now, we want to know why this one is different — did something catastrophic happen?" lead researcher Christopher Onken, a researcher at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University (ANU), said in a statement(opens in new tab). "Perhaps two big galaxies crashed into each other, funneling a whole lot of material onto the black hole to feed it."
This rapid accretion of matter to the surface of the black hole has also resulted in a quasar blasting out enough energy to make it 7,000 times brighter than the light from every star in the Milky Way. In fact, this quasar (designated SMSS J114447.77- 430859.3) is also the most luminous of these events for around the past two-thirds of the universe's 13.8 billion-year existence.
The quasar has a brightness of magnitude 14.5 when viewed from Earth, meaning it is only slightly dimmer than Pluto and bright enough to potentially be spotted by skywatchers with good telescopes in a very dark area.
The discovery of the feeding black hole was made as part of the SkyMapper Southern Sky Survey, conducted by the 1.3-meter (4.3 feet) telescope at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia.
An illustration of a quasar.
An illustration of a distant quasar; powered by feeding black holes, quasars are some of the most luminous objects in the universe. (Image credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser)
Despite the quasar's incredible brightness, Onken and his team still described the finding as a "very large, unexpected needle in the haystack."
"Astronomers have been hunting for objects like this for more than 50 years," Onken said. "They have found thousands of fainter ones, but this astonishingly bright one had slipped through unnoticed."
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— The most distant quasar ever found is hiding a seriously supermassive black hole
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Christian Wolf, an associate professor at ANU and a member of the research team, said that he thinks astronomers are unlikely to find another black hole growing at this rate or powering a quasar of this magnitude or greater.
"We have essentially run out of sky where objects like this could be hiding," Wolf said. "We are fairly confident this record will not be broken."
Advertisement
A paper detailing the discovery has been submitted to the journal Publications of the Astronomical
By Robert Lea published 38 minutes ago
This behemoth has been powering an ultrabright quasar for 9 billion years.
A black hole and accretion disk
An illustration of a black hole surrounded by an accretion disk feeding it. (Image credit: ESO, ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser)
The fastest-growing black hole ever seen is swallowing the mass equivalent of an entire Earth every second.
This gargantuan black hole has a mass 3 billion times that of the sun, and its rapid consumption is causing the behemoth to grow rapidly, an international research team found. The black hole gorges via a process called accretion, in which it siphons matter from a thin disk of gas and dust rotating around the massive object.
Other black holes of a similar size stopped growing billions of years ago, but this newly discovered black hole is still getting larger. It's now 500 times bigger than Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, and would fit the whole solar system behind its event horizon, the boundary beyond which nothing can escape.
Sponsored Links
PhD Economist Warns: “A Strange Day is Coming”
VisionaryProfit
Related: Listen to the 'echoes' of black holes chowing down on stars
Click here for more Space.com videos...
CLOSE
Based on this information, the researchers determined that the newfound black hole is the most rapidly growing black hole found to exist in the past 9 billion years.
"Now, we want to know why this one is different — did something catastrophic happen?" lead researcher Christopher Onken, a researcher at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University (ANU), said in a statement(opens in new tab). "Perhaps two big galaxies crashed into each other, funneling a whole lot of material onto the black hole to feed it."
This rapid accretion of matter to the surface of the black hole has also resulted in a quasar blasting out enough energy to make it 7,000 times brighter than the light from every star in the Milky Way. In fact, this quasar (designated SMSS J114447.77- 430859.3) is also the most luminous of these events for around the past two-thirds of the universe's 13.8 billion-year existence.
The quasar has a brightness of magnitude 14.5 when viewed from Earth, meaning it is only slightly dimmer than Pluto and bright enough to potentially be spotted by skywatchers with good telescopes in a very dark area.
The discovery of the feeding black hole was made as part of the SkyMapper Southern Sky Survey, conducted by the 1.3-meter (4.3 feet) telescope at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia.
An illustration of a quasar.
An illustration of a distant quasar; powered by feeding black holes, quasars are some of the most luminous objects in the universe. (Image credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser)
Despite the quasar's incredible brightness, Onken and his team still described the finding as a "very large, unexpected needle in the haystack."
"Astronomers have been hunting for objects like this for more than 50 years," Onken said. "They have found thousands of fainter ones, but this astonishingly bright one had slipped through unnoticed."
RELATED STORIES:
— The most distant quasar ever found is hiding a seriously supermassive black hole
— How big is a black hole? How messily it 'eats' may be a clue.
— Giant radiation bubbles created by monster black hole feeding frenzy, new study suggests
Christian Wolf, an associate professor at ANU and a member of the research team, said that he thinks astronomers are unlikely to find another black hole growing at this rate or powering a quasar of this magnitude or greater.
"We have essentially run out of sky where objects like this could be hiding," Wolf said. "We are fairly confident this record will not be broken."
Advertisement
A paper detailing the discovery has been submitted to the journal Publications of the Astronomical
Society of Australia but has not yet been peer reviewed. A preprint version is available via thearXiv database.
Ready for liftoff!
We've selected seven new flight directors to oversee NASA's future missions to the
@Space_Station
, the Moon, and beyond from
@NASA_Johnson
's Mission Control Center. Meet the crew: https://go.nasa.gov/39QzNSp
We've selected seven new flight directors to oversee NASA's future missions to the
@Space_Station
, the Moon, and beyond from
@NASA_Johnson
's Mission Control Center. Meet the crew: https://go.nasa.gov/39QzNSp
NASA
NASA Introduces 2022 Class of Flight Directors
NASA has selected seven new additions to the team of flight directors to oversee operations of the International Space Station, commercial crew, and Artemis missions to the Moon.
James Webb Space Telescope discovers candidates for most distant galaxies yet
By Keith Cooper published about 5 hours ago
The two galaxies, if confirmed, existed 300 to 400 million years after the Big Bang.
artist's depiction
An artist's impression of one of the first galaxies. (Image credit: NASA/ESA/ESO/Wolfram Freudling et al. (STECF).)
Astronomers have spotted what may be the two most distant galaxies ever seen hiding in early-release images from NASA's newest space telescope.
The James Webb Space Telescope's early science work includes a program called the Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space, or GLASS. Through GLASS, astronomers are scrutinizing the galaxy cluster Abell 2744, which is so massive that its gravity is able to distort the space around it and act as a gravitational lens to magnify the images of far more distant galaxies behind it.
Astronomers led by Rohan Naidu of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovered the two candidate galaxies, called GLASS-z11 and GLASS-z13, in th
By Keith Cooper published about 5 hours ago
The two galaxies, if confirmed, existed 300 to 400 million years after the Big Bang.
artist's depiction
An artist's impression of one of the first galaxies. (Image credit: NASA/ESA/ESO/Wolfram Freudling et al. (STECF).)
Astronomers have spotted what may be the two most distant galaxies ever seen hiding in early-release images from NASA's newest space telescope.
The James Webb Space Telescope's early science work includes a program called the Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space, or GLASS. Through GLASS, astronomers are scrutinizing the galaxy cluster Abell 2744, which is so massive that its gravity is able to distort the space around it and act as a gravitational lens to magnify the images of far more distant galaxies behind it.
Astronomers led by Rohan Naidu of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovered the two candidate galaxies, called GLASS-z11 and GLASS-z13, in th
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SpaceX's next astronaut launch for NASA slips to late September
By Meghan Bartels published 26 minutes ago
photo of rocket on launch pad
SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endurance and its Falcon 9 rocket stand atop Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, before the launch of the Crew-3 mission. (Image credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX's next Dragon passengers will need to wait a little longer to get off the ground.
SpaceX and NASA will launch Crew-5, their next crewed mission to the International Space Station, no earlier than Sept. 29, according to a NASA statement(opens in new tab) released on Thursday (July 21). The delay will see the mission slip behind the next launch of astronauts on a Russian Soyuz vehicle.
"A launch at the end of September will allow SpaceX to complete hardware processing and mission teams will continue to review the launch date based on the space station's visiting spacecraft schedule," NASA officials wrote.
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Crew-5 includes NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina.
The flight will be a crucial milestone for NASA, which has long argued in favor of "crew swaps" in which Russian cosmonauts fly on NASA's commercially procured missions and NASA astronauts continue to ride on Russian Soyuz capsules.
After lengthy negotiations, NASA announced last week that Crew-5 will be the first SpaceX flight to carry a cosmonaut. NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos have also agreed that cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev will fly on Crew-6, currently targeting launch in the spring. Meanwhile, NASA astronauts Frank Rubio and Loral O'Hara will each fly on Soyuz missions in the coming months.
The new schedule for Crew-5 means that the vehicles will be swapping launch slots as well as passengers.
The Crew-5 mission was previously aiming to arrive at the orbiting laboratory earlier in September. Under the new schedule, rather than Crew-5 replacing the currently orbiting Crew-4 astronauts before the next Soyuz launch, the Soyuz crews will turn over first. The launch of the next Soyuz and return of the current Soyuz crew is scheduled to occur between Sept. 16 and Sept. 30, according to NASA.
In addition to the schedule update, NASA and SpaceX also offered details about the rocket and capsule that will fly Crew-5.
The mission will use the Dragon capsule Endurance, which also carried Crew-3 for a November 2021 launch; the capsule returned to Earth from that flight in early May. Although SpaceX routinely reflies its hardware, NASA noted that this flight will mark a new milestone; it will be the first commercial crew flight to carry four veteran Draco engines to steer the capsule, with no new so-called forward bulkhead Draco engines. Teams are also switching out the capsule's heat shield, parachutes and pod panels, according to the statement.
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Endurance will launch atop a brand-new Falcon 9 booster, but mission personnel still have some issues to address on that end as well. The booster sustained some damage during the journey from the SpaceX production center in California to a test facility in Texas, according to the statement. Accordingly, the company is replacing both the interstage, which connects the first and second stages, and some instruments.
Both SpaceX and NASA are confident in the booster, which underwent a host of tests to ensure that there was no damage beyond the interstage segment; additional tests will also occur after all the replacements are complete, according to the statement.
By Meghan Bartels published 26 minutes ago
photo of rocket on launch pad
SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endurance and its Falcon 9 rocket stand atop Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, before the launch of the Crew-3 mission. (Image credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX's next Dragon passengers will need to wait a little longer to get off the ground.
SpaceX and NASA will launch Crew-5, their next crewed mission to the International Space Station, no earlier than Sept. 29, according to a NASA statement(opens in new tab) released on Thursday (July 21). The delay will see the mission slip behind the next launch of astronauts on a Russian Soyuz vehicle.
"A launch at the end of September will allow SpaceX to complete hardware processing and mission teams will continue to review the launch date based on the space station's visiting spacecraft schedule," NASA officials wrote.
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Wall Street legend’s Surprising Warning: “A Strange Day is Coming”
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In pictures: Amazing launch photos of SpaceX's Crew-4 mission
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Crew-5 includes NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina.
The flight will be a crucial milestone for NASA, which has long argued in favor of "crew swaps" in which Russian cosmonauts fly on NASA's commercially procured missions and NASA astronauts continue to ride on Russian Soyuz capsules.
After lengthy negotiations, NASA announced last week that Crew-5 will be the first SpaceX flight to carry a cosmonaut. NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos have also agreed that cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev will fly on Crew-6, currently targeting launch in the spring. Meanwhile, NASA astronauts Frank Rubio and Loral O'Hara will each fly on Soyuz missions in the coming months.
The new schedule for Crew-5 means that the vehicles will be swapping launch slots as well as passengers.
The Crew-5 mission was previously aiming to arrive at the orbiting laboratory earlier in September. Under the new schedule, rather than Crew-5 replacing the currently orbiting Crew-4 astronauts before the next Soyuz launch, the Soyuz crews will turn over first. The launch of the next Soyuz and return of the current Soyuz crew is scheduled to occur between Sept. 16 and Sept. 30, according to NASA.
In addition to the schedule update, NASA and SpaceX also offered details about the rocket and capsule that will fly Crew-5.
The mission will use the Dragon capsule Endurance, which also carried Crew-3 for a November 2021 launch; the capsule returned to Earth from that flight in early May. Although SpaceX routinely reflies its hardware, NASA noted that this flight will mark a new milestone; it will be the first commercial crew flight to carry four veteran Draco engines to steer the capsule, with no new so-called forward bulkhead Draco engines. Teams are also switching out the capsule's heat shield, parachutes and pod panels, according to the statement.
RELATED STORIES:
— In photos: SpaceX's Crew-3 astronaut launch for NASA
— See SpaceX's Crew-3 Dragon capsule streak back to Earth in these amazing photos
— See amazing photos of SpaceX's Ax-1 private astronaut launch and mission
Endurance will launch atop a brand-new Falcon 9 booster, but mission personnel still have some issues to address on that end as well. The booster sustained some damage during the journey from the SpaceX production center in California to a test facility in Texas, according to the statement. Accordingly, the company is replacing both the interstage, which connects the first and second stages, and some instruments.
Both SpaceX and NASA are confident in the booster, which underwent a host of tests to ensure that there was no damage beyond the interstage segment; additional tests will also occur after all the replacements are complete, according to the statement.
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