| | Planetensuche / hunting for exoplanets |
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new Planetensuche update [9 May 2024]
the new version 6.26 is now available
new Planetensuche update [26 Nov 2023]
the new version 6.25 is now available
new Planetensuche update [24 Sept 2023]
the new version 6.24 is now available
new Planetensuche update [18 Jul 2023]
the new version 6.23 is now available
new Planetensuche update [22 Jun 2023]
the new version 6.22 is now available
Picture galleries about exoplanets and eclipsing binaries [23rd April 2023]
There are now extensive picture galleries about transits of exoplanets and eclipsing binaries (stars) on my site. I used a balanced selection to show that sometimes star transits look the same as planetary transits.
new Planetensuche update [26 Mar 2023]
the new version 6.21 is now available
new Planetensuche update [17 Jan 2023]
the new version 6.20 is now available
new list with all confirmed exoplanets from PHT [3rd Jan 2023]
There is now a new list with my confirmed exoplanet and all confirmed PHT exoplanets. It's a interessting overview about the success of the PHT project. Hopefully the most of the candidates can be also confirmed later.
my first confirmed exoplanet [28th Dec 2022]
TOI-5174 b (TOI 5174.01 or TIC 49428710.01) is now the very first confirmed exoplanet from my candidate list. I found this exoplanet in January of this year and in February it was registered as a PHT candidate under TIC 49428710.01. It was then included in the TOI list in July and confirmed in October by another research team (Mantovan et al.), see Validation of TESS exoplanet candidates orbiting solar analogues in the all-sky PLATO input catalogue.
The exoplanet orbits a Sun-like star (about 4% cooler and 9% larger than our Sun) and is located in the constellation of Leo, 643 ly's away. The star has slightly more heavier elements than our sun and is therefore probably a bit younger. With 11.583 magnitudes, the star can only be seen in a telescope. If you compare the planetary radius with the planets from our solar system it's between Uranus and Saturn. The mass of the exoplanet is currently unknown. The statistical estimate is 19.17 Earth masses.
Radius: 5.351 Earth radii / 0.477 Jupiter radii (planet class "Sub-Jovian")
Period: 12.214286 days
Surface temperature: ~500 °C (Thx to masse22 for the initial pyaneti model)
Light curve (LATTE screenshot):
The star is located at the far lower end of the constellation Leo, near Ypsilon Leo (lower left of the star map). Numerous other exoplanets have been discovered in this area (blue circles):
Update candidate list [26th Nov 2022]
Today my exoplanet candidate list has grown to 30! The PHT project has a total of 285 candidates, which accounts for about 4% of the total of over 7000 TESS candidates.
All details about my discovered candidates can be viewed here.
new Planetensuche update [23 Oct 2022]
the new version 6.19 is now available
new Planetensuche update [2 Oct 2022]
the new version 6.18 is now available
new Planetensuche update [25th Sept. 2022]
the new version 6.17 is now available
Homepage updated [1st Sept. 2022]
Today I updated the link collection on the left side and published new versions of my Exoplanet candidate list and History of exoplanet hunt.
new Planetensuche update [31st Jul. 2022]
the new version 6.16 is now available
Server removal complete [27th Jul. 2022]
The server removal was successfully completed. Both domains now point to the new server.
Server removal [18th Jul. 2022]
I was informed by my server hosting provider that my server is outdated and will be shut down at the beginning of October. Until then I have to move everything to a new server.
In theory, this shouldn't have any effect. The domain planetensuche.de then points to the new server from a certain point in time.
At the moment, however, it is unclear whether the domain marfir.de can also be moved. If not, Planetensuche 6.15 has already been switched to planetensuche.de.
All users with older Planetensuche versions are requested to update to the latest version as soon as possible.
new Planetensuche update [17th Jul. 2022]
the new version 6.15 is now available
new Planetensuche update [23rd Apr. 2022]
the new version 6.14 is now available
Overview about my planet candidates added [19th Mar. 2022]
I implemented in a future version of Planetensuche a function that imports all Planet Hunters TESS (PHT) candidates and exports my own candidates as a html site.
You can find the overview about my candidates here.
Some statistics about the discovered exoplanet candidates [25th Jan. 2022]
After publishing my exoplanet candidates, I got the idea to see how many other PHT users have also recognized the transits.
Here are the stats from Planet Hunters Analysis Database:
| exoplanet candidate identifier | number of transits | number of users | user names |
|---|
| TIC 443616612.01 | 1 | 11 | Prothon,JKD,mase22,HeadAroundU,TaxiCab1729,Fibonacci011235,
Jose-Adao,spalfrenb,Marfir,csteiner,andreamilosevic |
| TIC 27064468.01 | 4 | 5 (all 4 transits) | mase22,HeadAroundU,planetari7,Vidar87,robertdavies |
| TIC 337385330.01 | 1 (sector 44) | 5 | TaxiCab1729,Vidar87,Carlos.Greene,Adrian97,Marfir |
| TIC 91287873.01 | 1 (sector 44) | 13 | zbish,djsimister,TaxiCab1729,colinjdavis,rdferst,voyager168,mboschmd,
Vidar87,John_M_Cummins,assodicuori,d_d,Marfir,analogblue |
| TIC 59490344.01 | 1 | 7 | TaxiCab1729,colinjdavis,stormforge,Vidar87,rjan,Marfir,sobysquared |
| TIC 393546540.01 | 1 | 5 | HeadAroundU,TaxiCab1729,assodicuori,Marfir,BlackHunt |
To my own surprise, I overlooked the transit on day 14.3 at TIC 27064468 and found it later with LATTE. Apparently many other users felt the same way.
10 users discovered the transit on day 3.3, twice as many as on day 14.3.
This publication also contains a confirmation and explanation for this:
"This is because the PH volunteers typically identify transit-like events one by one, rather than by exploiting their periodic nature as most automated transit-search algorithms do.
They are thus equally likely to find a planet candidate that produces only one transit event in a given light curve as they are to find multiple transit events,
as was shown by Schwamb et al. (2012)."
Unfortunately, I do not know the total number of volunteers who analyzed the light curves for the other planet candidates.
The number seems to be variable, according to this publication:
"Each real light curve (or light-curve segment) is seen by 8 to 15 volunteers and the significance of each transit-like event is evaluated based on all the marked transits
(a similar algorithm is described in Schwamb et al. 2012)."
In my opinion, the single transit (sector 44) around TIC 337385330 was the hardest to spot:
News from the exoplanet hunt with TESS [24th Jan. 2022]
In the meantime I have finished searching sectors 44 and 45 on
Planet Hunters TESS (PHT)
(manually, transit method) and validated my discoveries.
PHT is a community of approximately 30,000 dedicated volunteers, led by Nora Eisner, searching for exoplanets.
The data for this come from the TESS space telescope (successor to Kepler).
In this search I was able to find 6 new planet candidates. Also possible protoplanets around the YSO star TIC 6553831. YSO (Young Stellar Object)
are very young stars which can have dust disks around them, in which planets will later form. This star shows corresponding changes in its light curve, which are as big as planets.
However, so far not only exoplanets but also many eclipsing binaries have been identified by the project. In a January
publication this year, 6,699 candidate eclipsing binaries
are attributed to the project.
All 6 planet candidates are listed below. In half of these, only 1 single transit could be observed so far, which means that the orbital period can only be estimated very
imprecisely (for details see PHT Results and Discussions).
Some of these stars are observed again in sector 46, so there is a chance to observe a transit again.
The possible Jupiter-like planet around TIC 443616612 is particularly interesting because the confirmed planets K2-43 b and c are already known around this star.
The candidate around TIC 337385330 is also exciting because the planet should have a solid surface and is inside of the Hycean Habitable Zone.
The surface temperature is around 403 Kelvin (130 °C). That sounds hostile to life at first,
but according to the latest studies, such planets could perhaps still be home to life.
The last two candidates orbit sun-like stars (our sun = G2V). For comparison, our Mercury has an orbital period of about 88 days and Venus has 225 days.
All candidates have been recognized by astronomers and have now received a CTOI entry. This means that these stars are prioritized for further observation by TESS.
These are not yet confirmed exoplanets. Despite intensive validating, one or the other could later turn out to be a false-positive (false detection).
I would like to thank the PHT users mase22 and mhuten who diligently supported me in validating my findings. And of course also Nora for the
final reviews and that she made this possible with her project in the first place. Great team work!
The 6 exoplanet candidates from sector 44 and 45 in the star map (screenshot from Planetensuche):
new Planetensuche update [31st Oct. 2021]
the new version 6.13 is now available
My contribution on Planet Hunters TESS [30th Oct. 2021]
At this week I have started to validate my findings on Planet Hunters TESS project. The results will be tracked here
The history of the exoplanet hunt [23rd Oct. 2021]
you can find a short history overview on this place
new Planetensuche update [16th May 2021]
the new version 6.12 is now available
How many planets exists in the Milky Way? [8th May 2021]
In the current Planetensuche version 6.11, the question of how many planets could be in our Milky Way is answered.
To do this, I extrapolated the current confirmed exoplanets to the Milky Way.
The basic assumptions made are described in the diagram.
Interesting is not only the bare (gigantic) number of possible planets, but also how many of them could be Earth-like.
With the NASA database from April 2021, 61 million rocky planets, which orbit sun-like stars and within the
habitable zone, are forecast!
This huge number of potentially habitable planets shows that Earth does not seem to be a lucky one-off.
Given millions of worlds with possible (intelligent?) life, utopias like Star Trek or
Star Wars seem scientifically possible.
Only that we unfortunately still lack the fast drives to be able to get an impression on site (e.g. from Gliese 581 c).
For now, we only have the option to analyze the atmospheres of exoplanets from the distance (see e.g. the detection of water vapor around HD 209458 b).
When it comes to the question of life, moons around gas planets would also be interesting if they are in the habitable zone
(e.g. perhaps around gas planet Taphao Thong).
The extrapolation also allows to be better estimated the possible values of the variables Fp and Ne of the Drake equation / Green-Bank formula
(see also Formulas module - other formulas - Green-Bank formula).
The diagram is located in the Simulation module in the menu under Statistics - Number of planets in the Milky Way.
The forecast adjusts automatically after every exoplanet update (Database module in the menu Database - Online-Exoplanet-Update).
new Planetensuche update [5th May 2021]
the new version 6.11 is now available
new Planetensuche update [24th Jan. 2021]
the new version 6.10 is now available
new Planetensuche update [17th Jan. 2021]
the new version 6.09 is now available
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Gerd Gühne
Kohlweg 10
04347 Leipzig
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