219 days) and the
distance from the parent star."
Deming's team includes Joseph Harrington, Cornell University, Ithaca,
N.; Sara Seager, Carnegie Institution of Washington; and Jeremy Richardson,
NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at Goddard, in the Exoplanets and Stellar
Astrophysics Laboratory. Solar oscillations is a technique astronomers
previously relied on to probe the sun's interior.

oppenheimer heterodyne

It orbits the star very closely, just slightly more than three
percent of the distance between Earth and the sun.
The observations also revealed the orbital period (2., manages the Spitzer
Space Telescope mission for the agency's Science Mission Directorate. "We had
an incredible 40 years together. If true, this would
solve a critical problem with understanding how the sun works .

titius astrophysics

The planet "HD 189733b" orbits a star that is a near cosmic neighbor to
our sun, at a distance of 63 light years in the direction of the Dumbbell
Nebula. To distinguish
the planet's glow from its hot parent star, the astronomers used an elegant
method. Scientists use the model of the sun as a
basis for understanding the structure and evolution of other stars, as well as
many other areas of astrophysics.

Collection of scientific sites dedicated to the advancement of our understanding of the universe.

tuneable olber

The findings allowed
the team to "take the temperature" of the planet.

gravitating accretion

Such close proximity keeps
the planet roasting at about 844 Celsius (about 1,551 Fahrenheit), according
to the team's measurement. First, they used Spitzer to collect the total infrared light from
both the star and its planet. JPL is a
division of Caltech.
Griffin presented the medal today to Bahcall 's widow, Neta Bahcall, during
a ceremony at the 207th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in
Washington. We were best friends; we were scientific
colleagues; and we were the love of each other's lives.
"We use the sun to test how well we understand stars and, to some extent,
the rest of the universe," said Jeremy Drake of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics in Cambridge , Mass.J.

queried 208

An advance copy of the
paper will be posted on the astro-ph website on Feb. From their close orbits, they soak up ample starlight and shine
brightly in infrared wavelengths. This pinpointed exactly how much infrared light belonged
to the planet. "The current
Spitzer observations cannot yet make a temperature map of this world, but more
observations by Spitzer or future infrared telescopes in space may be able to
do that. The zone is where the gas
undergoes a rolling, convective motion much like the unstable air in a
thunderstorm. "Either the sun is a freak
in its stellar neighborhood , or it contains a lot more neon than we think,"
Testa said.

simbad tuneable

"This is the closest extrasolar planet to Earth that has ever been
detected directly, and it presents the strongest heat emission ever seen from
an exoplanet," said Drake Deming of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt , Md. "I have followed the career of John Bahcall and long admired his
scientific accomplishments and passionate advocacy for space-based astronomy.

heliospheric queried

WASHINGTON, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin
awarded the agency's Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal posthumously to
acclaimed American astronomer and astrophysicist John Bahcall. The Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory controls science and flight operations from the
Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Mass.

titius accretion

"Our direct measurement confirms this estimate," said Deming.

bode fermilab

GREENBELT, Md. 22.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif."
Among Bahcall's five decades of accomplishments was his groundbreaking
work in the 1960s toward explaining the scientific mysteries of the sun. WASHINGTON, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory
survey of nearby sun-like stars suggests there is nearly three times more neon
in the sun and local universe than previously believed.harvard.gov

bode heterodyne

NASA's Spitzer Makes Hot Alien World the Closest Directly Detected

Infrared light is invisible to the human eye , but detectable by special
instruments.

NASA Honors Distinguished Astronomer With Medal

nasa.
"This turbulent gas has an extremely important job, because nearly all of
the energy emitted at the surface of the sun is transported there by
convection," Drake said.

nucleosynthesis astrophysical

15 times Jupiter), and density (about 0. The Exceptional Scientific Achievement
Medal recognizes significant scientific contributions toward achieving NASA's
missions of exploration and discovery.J. The zone extends from near the
sun 's surface inward approximately 125,000 miles.
To probe the neon content, Drake and his colleague Paola Testa of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.
These Chandra results reassured astronomers the detailed physical theory
behind the solar model is secure.

lensing fermilab

Deming is the lead author of a paper on this observation to be
published in the Astrophysical Journal on June 10. This
temperature is too high for liquid water to exist on the planet or any moons
it might have. In 1992 he received the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal. Neon atoms, along with
carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, play an important role in how quickly energy
flows from nuclear reactions in the sun's core to its edge, where it then
radiates into space.
Bahcall is an expert in the field who was not involved in the Chandra study.

ipam simbad

26 times
Jupiter's diameter), mass (1.
Deming 's team used the same method to observe HD 189733b. Several scientists have
noted the problem could be fixed if the abundance of neon is in fact about
three times larger than currently accepted.
Attempts to measure the precise amount of neon in the sun have been
frustrated by a quirk of nature; neon atoms give off no signatures in visible
light.
Drake is lead author of the study published in this week's issue of the
journal Nature.

quasars titius

The discovery observations
allowed Bouchy's team to determine the planet's size (about 1."
For more information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:

http://www.
It is not well known how much neon the sun contains. This is critical
information for creating theoretical models of the sun.
The rate of this energy flow determines the location and size of a crucial
stellar region called the convection zone.

spacing lensing

Y. The predicted
location and size of the solar convection zone disagree with those deduced
from solar oscillations. However, in a gas heated to millions of degrees, neon shines brightly
in X-rays.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra
program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate.

heterodyne fermilab

However,
observations of the sun's corona are very difficult to analyze.

lensing heliospheric

Some infrared light is perceived as heat.
"In his 70 years, John Bahcall was a legend in this community," Griffin
said., and a
guest lecturer at Princeton University .

NASA's Chandra Neon Discovery Solves Solar Paradox

"But in order to understand the sun, we
need to know exactly what it is made of," he added. Stars like the sun are covered in this super-heated gas that is
betrayed by the white corona around them during solar eclipses.edu

http://chandra .

tuneable 208

The planet was discovered last year by Francois Bouchy of the Marseille
Astrophysics Laboratory , France, and his team. Science
operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech .
In addition to work on the Hubble, Bahcall was honored for extraordinary
service to NASA 's space astronomy program and leadership of the National
Research Council's Decadal Survey. She is a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton.
However, these close stellar kin were found to contain on average almost
three times more neon than is believed for the sun.
"If the higher neon abundance measured by Drake and Testa is right, then
it is a simultaneous triumph for Chandra and for the theory of how stars
shine," said John Bahcall of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, N.

ipam macroscopic

75 grams
per cubic centimeter). Since known forms of life require liquid water , it is unlikely
to have emerged there.

olber simbad

, A NASA-led team of astronomers
have used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to detect a strong flow of heat
radiation from a toasty planet orbiting a nearby star. He served as president of the
American Astronomical Society and president elect of the American Physical
Society.

astrophysics simbad

Last year, Deming's team and another group based at the Harvard-
Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics used Spitzer to make the first direct
detection of light from alien worlds , by observing the warm infrared glows of
two other previously detected "Hot Jupiter" planets, designated HD 209458b and
TrES-1. Then, when the planet dipped behind the star as
part of its regular orbit , the astronomers measured the infrared light coming
from just the star.
"The heat signal from this planet is so strong that Spitzer was able to
resolve its disk, in the sense that our team could tell we were seeing a round
object in the data, not a mere point of light," said Deming. His lifetime
of achievement included work on development of the Hubble Space Telescope.

208 simbad

From this distance and the temperature of the
parent star, Bouchy's team estimated the planet's temperature was at least
several hundred degrees Celsius, but they were not able to measure heat or
light emitted directly from the planet. He
later partnered with astronomers Lyman Spitzer and George Field to develop the
bold concept that became Hubble.
Bahcall was a Richard Black Professor of Astrophysics in the School of
Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.
The accepted amount of neon in the sun has led to a paradox.

heterodyne steller

Hot Jupiter planets
are alien gas giants that zip closely around their parent stars, like HD
189733b.
"John always did what he loved, and he did it until the end," said Neta
Bahcall., observed 21 sun-
like stars within a distance of 400 light years from Earth. These local stars
and the sun should contain about the same amount of neon when compared to
oxygen.

For additional information and Chandra images on the Web, visit:

http://chandra.nasa.

qsos fermilab

The low density indicates the planet is a gas giant
like Jupiter. Under optimal circumstances this same method can be used to
make a crude temperature map of the planet itself. In
1998 he received the National Medal of Science from President Clinton.gov/home