CoRoT Satellite Finds Six New Exoplanets

Scientists in charge of managing the CoRoT (Convection, Rotation and Transits) space telescope announce the discovery of a set of six new exoplanets. The “selection” is very diverse, including bodies ranging from hot Jupiters to brown dwarfs, the peculiar objects which astronomers cannot really define properly. The discovery is very important for astronomers as it increases the chances of them stumbling upon an Earth-sized planet, or at least one that is located in its star habitable zone. The international research team that coordinates CoRoT also features scientists from the Oxford University.

“Each of these planets is interesting in its own right, but what is really fascinating is how diverse they are. Planets are intrinsically complex objects, and we have much to learn about them yet,” Oxford University Department of Physics professor and study co-investigator Dr Suzanne Aigrain says. “Every discovery of an extrasolar planetary system is a new piece in the puzzle of how these systems do form and evolve. The more systems we uncover, the better we can hope to understand the processes at play,” adds the head of the CoRoT exoplanet program, Magali Deleuil. The expert is also a research scientist at the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM).

Though most of the new planets cannot be observed directly, because they are so far away from Earth, the researchers can extract some very important data through indirect measurements. For example, they can determine their sizes, masses, and orbits, and all of that based on how the exoplanets influence their parent stars. CoRoT already has a rick track of discovering exoplanets. The UK segment of the international collaboration is comprised of scientists at the Oxford University, the University of Exeter, and the University of St Andrews, and is spearheaded by Dr Aigrain, PhysOrg reports.

The newly-discovered planets include CoRoT-8b, which is about 70 percent the mass of Saturn, though it more closely resembles Neptune and Uranus in terms of composition. Another one is the eccentric giant CoRoT-10b, which has an orbit so elongated that it moves around its parent star at both extremely close and extremely distant points. The third planet, CoRoT-11b, is interesting simply because it was discovered. It orbits a very rapidly-rotating star, and detecting exoplanets around such bodies is notoriously difficult, even with state-of-the-art observatories.

The renaming planets, CoRoT-12b, 13b and 14b, are a trio of gas giants, each with unique properties. The only thing they have in common is the fact that they orbit their parent star at very close distances. Also interesting to note is the discovery of CoRoT-15b, a brown dwarf about 60 times heavier than Jupiter. These bodies have yet to be permanently classified as large planets or failed stars. The discovery of the new dwarf is important for two reasons – it adds a new object to this class and has the potential to yield additional insight into how these bodies form.