Milky Way: two new planets in its galaxy

The European Space Agency team and the body’s Gaia probe have discovered together with scientists from Tel Aviv two new planets. They are precisely positioned in the galaxy of Milky Way and they are called Gaia-1b And Gaia-2b.

The measurements we took with the telescope in the United States confirmed that they were in fact two giant planets, the same size as the planet Jupiter in our solar system, and placed so close to their sun that they make one less orbit. days, meaning each Earth year is comparable to that planet’s 90 years.

Shay Zucker, principal of the Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences

Planets have been at the center of research since 1995 to learn more. Gaia track the position of the stars and measure their brightness. The latter’s changes in the two distant stars led to the discovery of the two planets.

The planets were discovered due to the fact that they partially hide their suns each time they complete orbit, causing a cyclical decrease in the intensity of light reaching us from that distant sun. The new planets are very close to their suns; therefore the temperature is extremely high, around 1000 degrees Celsius, so there is no chance of life there. However, I am convinced that there is life on countless others, and it is reasonable to assume that in the coming years we will discover signs of organic molecules in the atmospheres of distant planets. Most likely we won’t be able to visit those distant worlds anytime soon, but we’re just starting the journey and it’s very exciting to be a part of the quest.

Aviad Panahi, PhD student at the Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics & Astronomy