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Gliese 3470 B
Gliese 3470 b, abbreviated as GJ 3470b, is an exoplanet orbiting the star Gliese 3470, located in the constellation Cancer. With a mass of just under 14 Earth-masses and a radius approximately 4.3 times that of Earth's, it is likely something akin to a mini-Neptune despite the initially strong belief that the planet was not covered in clouds like the gas giants in the Solar System. The orbit of Gliese 3470 b is strongly inclined to the equatorial plane of the parent star, with misalignment equal to 97°. In August 2022, this planet and its host star were included among 20 systems to be named by the third NameExoWorlds project. Atmosphere The atmosphere of Gliese 3470 b is one of the best spectroscopically characterized among all exoplanets. The exoplanet's atmosphere was first observed by researchers Akihiko Fukui, Norio Narita and Kenji Kuroda at the University of Tokyo in 2013, and afterwards, Fukui commented, "Suppose the atmosphere consists of hydrogen and helium, the ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Methods Of Detecting Extrasolar Planets
Any planet is an extremely faint light source compared to its parent star. For example, a star like the Sun is about a billion times as bright as the reflected light from any of the planets orbiting it. In addition to the intrinsic difficulty of detecting such a faint light source, the light from the parent star causes a glare that washes it out. For those reasons, very few of the exoplanets reported have been observed directly, with even fewer being resolved from their host star. Instead, astronomers have generally had to resort to indirect methods to detect extrasolar planets. As of 2016, several different indirect methods have yielded success. Established detection methods The following methods have at least once proved successful for discovering a new planet or detecting an already discovered planet: Radial velocity A star with a planet will move in its own small orbit in response to the planet's gravity. This leads to variations in the speed with which the star move ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
