Team of Astronomers at the University of Canterbury(UC),New Zealand, led by Dr. Antonio Herrera Martin and Associate Professor Michael Albrow discovered a new rare new Super-Earth planet towards the centre of the galaxy which is one of the planets similar to the size and orbit compared to the Earth and the work is published in The Astronomical Journal
Key Points:
i.The research of Dr. Antonio Herrera Martin and Michael Albrow from the School of Physical and Chemical Sciences in the University of Canterbury are part of an international team of astronomers collaborating in the Super-Earth research.
ii.The host star is about 10% of the sun’s mass and the planet mass of the planet is in between that of Earth and Neptune and orbits around the parent star at a location in between Venus and Earth.
iii.The discovery was made using a technique called gravitational microlensing. Microlensing is a rare effect, with one in a million stars in the galaxy are affected at a given time.
This type of observation does not repeat and the likelihood of finding a planet at the same time of this effect is very low.
iv.The planet named OGLE-2018-BLG-0677 was discovered in 2018 observation during the microlensing event by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment(OGLE) using the telescope in Chile and US astronomers belonging to the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network(KMTNet), using the identical telescopes in Chile, Australia and South Africa.
v.The team used to measure the light output from more than hundred million stars(100,000,000) for every 15 minutes with a KMTNet telescope equipped with large cameras.
About UC:
Chairman- Professor Ian Wright(Deputy Vice-Chancellor)
Secretary- Eleri Nugent
Located in- Christchurch, New Zealand
Established in- 1873
