从新行星遇见地球的未来
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A new planet has been discovered by an international team of astronomers which includes a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). The team’s findings are shortly to be published in Nature, an internationally respected weekly journal read by scientists from around the world.

The team involved in this project have discovered a new planet three times the size of Jupiter, about 4500 light years from Earth. This is the first planet known to have survived the ‘Red Giant’ phase of the parent star, a period of expansion that can engulf planets in the surrounding solar system.

Professor Don Kurtz is the only UK-based member of the19-strong team who worked together to look into the hearts of stars by studying sound waves inside them. The technique was developed over three years by the group, and this is the first planet which has been found using this method. The team are all members of the Whole Earth Telescope (WET) project, a collaboration of academics who use observatories around the world to maintain constant surveillance of space.

Professor Kurtz explained: “We see inside the stars using sound just as a bat sees using echoes, and as the face of a foetus can be seen with ultra-sound.”

Remarkably, the planet under observation has remained intact while the parent star has swelled, expanded and then collapsed. It has done this by drifting away from the parent star.
Professor Kurtz said this discovery is a view of the future of Earth: “Our own sun will undergo a ‘Red Giant’ phase in around five billion years’ time when Mercury and Venus will be engulfed. Our observations show how Earth may withstand the ‘Red Giant’ phase of our own Sun. However: it will not be in any fit state for life; it will be much too hot.”

Professor Kurtz, who joined UCLan in 2001, said: “UCLan has an excellent reputation for astrophysics – we have access to the largest telescopes in the world. We are partners in the Southern African Large Telescope project, so the facilities available for astronomers who wish to work and study here are world-class.”

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