A few high school students are praised for a great astronomical discovery after identifying four new planets in orbit around a star about 200 light-years from Earth.
What are the details?
The two students, 16-year-old Kartik Pinglé and 18-year-old Jasmine Wright, who both attend Massachusetts schools, were delighted with participating in the discovery and writing about it in a paper report published by the Astronomical. Magazine last week.
The finding could make them the youngest astronomers to have made such a great discovery, according to a press release published by the Center for Astrophysics, a collaboration between Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution.
The students made their discovery as part of the CFA’s “Student Research Mentoring Program”, an initiative that links students interested in research with scientific scientists who then embark on a year-long project.
As part of the program, the high school students were selected to work with Tansu Daylan, a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to analyze data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a satellite orbiting the earth. and nearby bright stars examined. hoping to discover new planets.
The team focused on a nearby star such as the TESS Object of Interest 1233 to see if planets were in orbit or not.
“Over time, we wanted to see changes in the light,” Pinglé explained of the research. “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. ‘
While researching the star, the students hoped to discover at least one planet, but to their surprise, they eventually found four.
“I was very excited and very shocked,” Wright said of the discovery. “We knew that was the goal of Daylan’s research, but finding a multiplanetary system and being part of the discovery team was really cool.”
According to the research article, the three outer planets are considered ‘sub-Neptunes’, or gaseous planets smaller than but otherwise similar to our solar system’s planet of the same name, while the inner planet is considered a ‘super-Earth’. due to its large size and rockiness.
What else?
The director of the program, Clara Sousa-Silva, noted that the performance of Pinglé and Wright is rare.
“Although [it] is one of the goals of the SRMP, it is highly unusual for high school students to be co-authors of magazines, ‘she said in the press release.
Daylan added that it was a ‘win-win’ to work with Pinglé and Wright and make a great discovery
“As a researcher, I like to interact with young brains who are open to experimentation and learning and have minimal bias,” he said. “I also think it is very beneficial for high school students as they get exposure to leading research and it quickly prepares them for a research career.”
According to the press release, Pinglé, who is only a junior in high school, is considering studying mathematics or astrophysics after graduation, while Wright is pursuing a five-year master’s degree in the astrophysics program at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. has been accepted.