Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002sass...21....9c&link_type=abstract
The Society for Astronomical Sciences 21st Annual Symposium on Telescope Science, held May 22-23, 2002, at Big Bear, CA. Publish
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The discovery since 1995 of more than 80 planets around nearby solar-like stars and the photometric measurement of a transit of the jovian mass planet orbiting the solar-like star HD 209458 (producing a more than 1% drop in brightness that lasts 3 hours) has heralded a new era in astronomy. It has now been demonstrated that small telescopes equipped with sensitive and stable electronic detectors can produce fundamental scientific discoveries regarding the frequency and nature of planets outside the solar system. The modest equipment requirements for the discovery of extrasolar planetary tran- sits of jovian mass planets in short period orbits around solar-like stars are fulfilled by commercial small aperture telescopes and CCD (charge coupled device) imagers common among amateur astronomers. With equipment already in hand and armed with target lists, observing techniques and software proce- dures developed by scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center and the Univer- sity of California at Santa Cruz, non-professional astronomers can contribute significantly to the discovery and study of planets around others stars. In this way, we may resume (after a two century interruption!) the tradition of planet discoveries by amateur astronomers begun with William Herschel's 1787 discovery of the "solar" planet Uranus.
Castellano Tim
Laughlin Greg
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