A five-planet system around TOI-1233 contains a super-earth (foreground) that can help solve the mysteries of planet formation. The four inner planets were discovered by high school students Kartik Pinglé and Jasmine Wright, along with researcher Tansu Daylan. The fifth outer planet in the picture was recently discovered by a separate team of astronomers. Artist Version. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
The high school experts published this week’s scientists, thanks to a research mentorship program at the Center for Astrophysics; Harvard and Smithsonian.
They are perhaps the youngest astronomers to have made another discovery.
This week, 16-year-old Kartik Pinglé and 18-year-old Jasmine Wright co-authored a paper report in The Astronomical Journal which describes the discovery of four new exoplanets, about 200 light-years from Earth.
The high school students participated in the research through the Student Research Mentoring Program (SRMP) at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. Directed by astrogemic Clara Sousa-Silva, she connects local high school students interested in research with Harvard scientists. MIT. The students then work with their mentors on a year-long research project.
“It’s a steep learning curve,” says Sousa-Silva, but it’s worth it. “At the end of the program, students can say that they have done active, latest research on astrophysics.”
Pinglé and Wright’s exceptional performance is rare. High school students rarely publish research, says Sousa-Silva. “While this is one of the goals of the SRMP, it is highly unusual for high school students to be co-authors of magazines.”
Led by mentor Tansu Daylan, a postdoctoral fellow at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, the students studied and analyzed data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). TESS is a space satellite that orbits the earth and explores nearby bright stars, with the ultimate goal of discovering new planets.
The team focused on TESS Object of Interest (TOI) 1233, a nearby, bright Sunny star. To determine whether planets orbit the star, they narrowed the light from TOI-1233.
“We wanted to see changes over time,” Pinglé explains. ‘The idea is that it would happen if the planet passed through the star, or went before it [periodically] cover the star and lower its brightness. ”
To the team’s surprise, they discover not one, but four planets orbiting TOI-1233.
“I was very excited and very shocked,” Wright says. “We knew that was the goal of Daylan’s research, but it was really cool to find a multiplanetary system and be part of the discovery team.”
Three of the planets are considered ‘sub-Neptunes’, gaseous planets smaller than but similar to our own solar system. Neptune. It takes between 6 and 19.5 days for each to orbit TOI-1233. The fourth planet is described as a ‘super-earth’ because of its large size and rockiness; it orbits the star in just under four days.
Daylan hopes to study the planets even more closely in the coming year.
“Our species has long considered planets outside our solar system, and with multi-planetary systems you hit the jackpot,” he says. ‘The planets come from the same disk matter around the same star, but in the end they were different planets with different atmospheres and different climates due to their different orbits. Thus, we would like to understand the fundamental processes of planet formation and evolution using this planetary system. ”
Daylan adds that it was a ‘win-win’ to work with Pinglé and Wright on the study.
“As a researcher, I like to interact with young brains that are open to experimentation and learning and have minimal bias,” he says. “I also think it is very beneficial for high school students because they are exposed to leading research and it quickly prepares them for a research career.”
The SRMP was founded in 2016 by Or Graur, a former postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. The program accepts about a dozen students a year with preference given to minority businesses.
Thanks to a partnership with the City of Cambridge, students are paid four hours a week for the research they complete.
“They are salaried scientists,” says Sousa-Silva. “We want to encourage them to make an academic career enjoyable and rewarding, no matter what they eventually pursue in life.”
Reference: “TESS Discovery of a Super-Earth and Three Sub-Neptunes Hosted by the Bright, Sun-like Star HD 108236” by Tansu Daylan, Kartik Pinglé, Jasmine Wright, Maximilian N. Günther, Keivan G. Stassun, Stephen R. Kane, Andrew Vanderburg, Daniel Jontof-Hutter, Joseph E. Rodriguez, Avi Shporer, Chelsea X. Huang, Thomas Mikal-Evans, Mariona Badenas-Agusti, Karen A. Collins, Benjamin V. Rackham, Samuel N. Quinn, Ryan Cloutier , Kevin I. Collins, Pere Guerra, Eric LN Jensen, John F. Kielkopf, Bob Massey, Richard P. Schwarz, David Charbonneau, Jack J. Lissauer, Jonathan M. Irwin, Özgür Bastürk, Benjamin Fulton, Abderahmane Soubkiou, Benkhaldoun Zouhair , Steve B. Howell, Carl Ziegler, César Briceño, Nicholas Law, Andrew W. Mann, Nic Scott, Elise Furlan, David R. Ciardi, Rachel Matson, Coel Hellier, David R. Anderson, R. Paul Butler, Jeffrey D. Crane, Johanna K. Teske, Stephen A. Shectman, Martti H. Kristiansen, Ivan A. Terentev, Hans Martin Schwengeler, George R. Ricker, Roland Vanderspe k, S ara Seager, Joshua N. Winn, Jon M. Jenkins, Zachory K. Berta-Thompson, Luke G. Bouma, William Fong, Gabor Furesz, Christopher E. Henze, Edward H. Morgan, Elisa Quintana, Eric B. Ting and Joseph D. Twicken, January 25, 2021, The Astronomical Journal.
DOI: 10.3847 / 1538-3881 / abd73e
Pinglé, a junior in high school, is considering studying applied mathematics or astrophysics. Wright has just been admitted to a five-year Master of Astrophysics program at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.