Scientists in breakthrough that could uncover new hidden planets
Undiscovered planets may soon be revealed thanks to a technological breakthrough by scientists.
Physicists at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and at Cambridge University have developed a form of astrocomb – a laser system that allows astronomers to observe tiny changes in the colour of starlight, revealing hidden planets in the process.
Researchers saythe technology could also improve understanding of how the universe naturally expands — and help them discover if there’s an earth-like planet revolving around a sun.
While astrocombs have been used by scientists studying the cosmos for several years, these were previously limited mainly to the green-red part of the colour spectrum.
However, the breakthrough will allow scientists to utilise the ultraviolet to blue-green part of the spectrum, which means theywill be able to discover even more secrets hidden in space.
“Astrocombs allow astronomers to make extremely sensitive wavelength measurements of the spectrum of light, potentially tens to hundreds of times better than conventional technology,” Professor Derryck Reid of Heriot-Watt said.
“Much like the millimetre scale on a ruler lets us measure distances precisely, an astrocomb gives astronomers a precision scale for measuring wavelength.”
Prof Reid’s team is developing the technology for the Extremely Large Telescope, which is under construction in Chile.
They also work with astronomers in Cambridge, Capetown and Uppsala, Sweden, on astrocombs for telescopes in the Canary Islands and South Africa.
Prof Reid said the astrocombs operated similarly to distortion on an electric guitar.
“Anice analogyis in rock music, where audio distortion is heard when the signal from an electric guitar is high, but not when it is lower,” he said.
“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 research associate at Cambridge, said: “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.”