Determination of extraterrestrial mass by light spectrum

A team of researchers from the MIT Institute of Technology recently introduced a method to determine the mass of planetary extrinsic masses by analyzing the spectrum of light passing through the planet's atmosphere.

Because the mass of a planet can tell us a lot about the potential for life and ability to reside, the study could provide a useful tool to answer the question of whether we have alone in the vast universe?

Although there have been reports of finding planets of the same size as the Earth, the distance between them and the host is appropriate for liquid water to exist, but these factors are not enough to determine a habitable planet.

Try taking an example in our solar system. There are 3 planets with the ideal size and distance but only 1 of them has life, it is Earth. Meanwhile Venus and Mars are still not eligible. Venus is no different from hell with sulfuric acid rains and temperatures that can melt lead. Mars is too dry and often bombarded by radiation.

What the scientific world is hunting is data about potential alien planets for life. There are many factors and one of the most important factors is the mass of the planet. If you know the size and mass of the planet will reveal many things about the nature of the planet. For example, it can tell you whether the main component of the planet is rock, like Earth or just the same gas as Neptune.

Screening of planetary planets such as Neptune will help speed up the hunting process, but knowing the mass of the planet will help scientists deduce other important factors, such as the characteristics of the atmosphere. whether the planet's tectonic, tectonic and magnetic activities protect it from cosmic rays and solar wind. All these factors are many other factors that are very important in hunting for life.

Hubble Space Telescope

According to MIT, the current techniques for understanding the mass of exoplanets are not really effective. The reason is that these techniques are based on measuring a star's volatility when a planet flies around it. Of course the method is still available but only optimized for very large planets and very close to the host star. Therefore, MIT's solution is to exploit the planet's outer light spectrum . Wait for the alien planet to fly across its sun (the star), the team will use NASA's large space telescopes like Hubble or Spitzer to record the spectrum of light as it passes through the gas. planet's book Of course, if the planet does not have an atmosphere, life cannot exist.

In addition to allowing astronomers to find out the size of the planet, the spectrum of light passing through the planet's atmosphere will be used to determine the composition, temperature and pressure of the atmosphere on the planet in one direction. Process available. According to the research team, if you find all three numbers, the planet's mass can be calculated.

Researcher Julien de Wit used an 18th-century mathematical constant called Euler-Mascheroni and demonstrated that this constant allowed to deduce each result of each parameter in the spectrum. He described these results as an "encryption key" of the atmosphere. To test, the team used the planetary magnetic spectrum 189733b, located 63 light-years from Earth and they found mass. In comparison, this result is equivalent to the results obtained from conventional research methods.

Wit said: 'It really helps you unlock everything and reveal many things, in addition to the "crazy" equations to find mass, you can learn about atmospheric properties. You can find the Euler-Mascheroni constant in many physical problems and it's interesting to see this constant reappear in the field of planetary science. "