Scientists in breakthrough that could uncover hidden planets

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Undiscovered planets could quickly be revealed, due to a technological breakthrough by scientists.

Physicists primarily based at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and Cambridge University have developed a type of astrocomb – a laser system that permits astronomers to look at tiny adjustments in the color of starlight, revealing hidden planets in the method.

Researchers say the expertise could additionally enhance understanding of how the universe naturally expands.

While astrocombs have been utilized by scientists learning the cosmos for a number of years, they had been beforehand restricted primarily to the green-red a part of the color spectrum.

However, the breakthrough will enable scientists to utilise the ultraviolet to blue-green a part of the spectrum, which implies they are going to be capable of uncover much more secrets and techniques hidden in area.

Professor Derryck Reid of Heriot-Watt stated: “Astrocombs allow astronomers to make extremely sensitive wavelength measurements of the spectrum of light, potentially tens to hundreds of times better than conventional technology.

“Much like the millimetre scale on a ruler lets us measure distances precisely, an astrocomb gives astronomers a precision scale for measuring wavelength.

“Until now, astrocombs operated mainly in the green-to-red part of the spectrum of light, but the shorter-wavelength ultraviolet to blue-green region is rich in the atomic absorption features of interest to astronomers.

“Our new approach for the first time provides a continuous sequence of optical markers from the ultraviolet to the blue-green that serve as a precision wavelength scale in this part of the spectrum.”

Prof Reid’s group is creating the expertise for the Extremely Large Telescope, presently beneath building in Chile.

They additionally work with astronomers in Cambridge, Uppsala and Capetown on astrocombs for telescopes in the Canary Islands and South Africa.

Prof Reid stated astrocombs function equally to distortion on an electrical guitar.

He stated: “A nice analogy is in rock music, where audio distortion is heard when the signal from an electric guitar is high, but not when it is lower.

“That distortion is simply new audio frequencies being created in the guitar amplifier: our devices do the same thing, but for light.

“Importantly, we’ve achieved a wide and continuous spectrum of ultraviolet to blue-green colours using a laser with remarkably low power, and of the same kind already in use in some astronomical telescopes.”

Dr Samantha Thompson, an astrophysics senior analysis affiliate at Cambridge, added: “This is a really exciting development that will enable us to study smaller planets on longer orbits than ever before – with the aim of discovering the first ‘Earth-like’ planet orbiting around a nearby sun-like star.”