Student in Chile discovers new planet

[Judi Lynn]

Student in Chile discovers new planet
20/08 01:47 CET

- video at link -

A Chilean doctorate student has discovered by coincidence a new planet orbiting a star double the size of the Sun, some 320 million light years from Earth.

Twenty-five year-old Maritza Soto Vasquez came upon the sphere while studying a nearby red star.

Apparently it has a mass 100 times that of Earth.

It is also said to be closer to its star than the Earth is to the Sun and can be compared to a planet three times the size of Jupiter, in the place of Venus.

Vasquez who studies at the University of Chile said she was delighted to have her findings confirmed and that she had “always dreamed of making a concrete scientific discovery”.

Corrected link:
http://www.euronews.com/2015/08/20/student-in-chile-discovers-new-planet/

[tblue37]

1. K&R, and to the greatest page for you. nt

[DetlefK]

2. 320 million light years cannot possibly be correct.

The Milky Way is 100,000 light-years across. Andromeda is about 2 million light-years away.

[longship]

4. Yup! Really bad journalism here.

Doesn't anybody vet this shit?

[paleotn]

7. Those who vet don't know either.....

it seems scientific literacy and journalism simply don't mix anymore. If they ever really did.

[BlueJazz]

9. She must have used a 4000 meter wide scope.

[William Seger]

10. Currently, Wiki lists most distant exoplanet at 21,500 ± 3,300 lightyears

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_exoplanet_extremes

[harris8]

3. Please add a link to the article

The 2 links originally posted are to an unrelated news article, and to this page itself.

[longship]

5. Linked article has nothing to do with post. nt

[tomm2thumbs]

6. Neato!!!!

Now that's something to stick to the refrigerator door!

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Link here, and euronews is incompetent enough to have put the '320 million' in the video too

http://www.euronews.com/2015/08/20/student-in-chile-discovers-new-planet/

293 light years from earth according to this: http://www.latercera.com/noticia/tendencias/2015/08/659-643538-9-astronoma-chilena-de-25-anos-descubre-planeta-tres-veces-mas-grande-que-jupiter.shtml

Doesn't make sense in 'million miles' or 'million km' either.

Here's her paper: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1505.04796.pdf

Though I'm not really sure that a doctoral candidate discovering a planet is significant news, these days. It's good science, though.

[William Seger]

11. "New planet discovered by 15-year-old intern"

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/11/europe/intern-discovers-planet/

[Judi Lynn]

12. Thank you for providing the correct link. Very sorry to have bungled it. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

13. Astronomer Discovers Planet 3 Times as Large as Jupiter

Astronomer Discovers Planet 3 Times as Large as Jupiter

Indo-Asian News Service , 20 August 2015

Chilean astronomer Maritza Soto has discovered a planet three times as large as Jupiter orbiting a red giant star (HD 110014) larger than the Sun and located some 290 million light years from Earth.

A doctoral student in Sciences at the University of Chile, Soto told EFE on Wednesday she worked for eight months using two telescopes at the La Silla observatory, 600 km north of Santiago.

Last November, Soto, 25, discovered the planet now bearing the designation HD 110014 c. Her work has now been published in a journal of the London Royal Astronomical Society.

The discovery of planets orbiting red giant stars is "rare", with only five such planets located around stars of that kind to date, she said.

More:
http://gadgets.ndtv.com/science/news/astronomer-discovers-planet-3-times-as-large-as-jupiter-730075

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