Hello everyone. I am very happy to present to you my first detection of an exoplanet made from my backyard! 2nd important event of the week after the image of the black hole in the center of our galaxy
. The planet is called TrES-1b and orbits a star slightly smaller than the Sun, 0.87 solar masses in the constellation Lyra. It is located 512 light-years away.
Some explanations for those not familiar with the technique. An exoplanet is a planet located outside the solar system. We have several indirect methods for the detection of planets (direct observation is very, very rare). I applied the transit method: when the planet passes in front of the star (seen from our observation point, the Earth), its luminosity will decrease during the transit time of the planet in front of the star. It is therefore necessary to record the luminosity of the star (by photometry) before, during and after the transit to be able to produce a curve as a function of time. Of course, it must also be compared at the same time with reference stars that have a fixed luminosity (for example, no planet passes between them and us during the observation).
This planet was discovered in 2004 by Alonso et al. from the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, Tenerife using the same transit method. Databases of known planets are available online, with predictions of transit, start, duration depending on the geographical position of the observer.I measured a transit time of 144.6 minutes according to the TRESCA model fit (I measured 147.15 minutes with AiJ) vs. the official value of 149.8 minutes. It is a planet very close to its star, which revolves very quickly around it in just 3 days! It therefore passes very briefly in front of the star, in 2h30. This allows the measurement to be carried out overnight.
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