Working for an Greg Laughlin at Systemic has put out a teasing hint about a potential major extrasolar planet discovery.
There has been a rumour circling the community that a major extrasolar planet discovery was to be announced imminently.
I do not have any confidential or embargoed information regarding this.
Greg Laughlin in a classical astronomical tradition just posted an anagram allegedly hinting at the discovery - in part to stake turf in case of a scoop, I gather
The anagram is: Huge Applet, Unsearchable Terrestrials!
Go try your luck over at Oklo, report any successes here.
For what is it worth, my solution to the anagram is:
TrES alleges Alph Centauri B Super Earth!
TrES is a major, active transit survey
This is a guess. Had to stretch a bit to accommodate the missing "a".
It will be huge if true.
I am looking forward to hearing all about it, real soon now.
Bonus if it is in the habitable zone.
PS: Ok, now I like Alpha Centauri B Super Earth, Resist Glee! better.
Previous limits on Alpha Cen B companions were about 0.5 Jupiter masses inside 0.2 AU going to about 2 Jupiter masses out at 2 AU
so plenty of room for a super earth inside an AU.
Or, as Brian notes below, the Alpha Cen may be a red herring and this is a teaser for a completely different result.
The CTIO observations of Alpha Cen commence may 19th, the Europeans did look at it, don't know if anyone else down south took a preliminary look at Alpha Cen.
PPS: Greg has stated the solution does not include the words "super" or "earth" and does include a "German name".
Now, "Herschel" springs to mind, looking at the letters on offer, but a better choice might be "Euler" combined with the word "phase" maybe?
Oh, and "Gliese" also, goes without saying...
The non-denial of "Alpha Centauri" or variants thereof is also intriguing but possibly a red herring. Lack of an "O", "K" or "V" limits the options sharply - eg it can't be about Struve's star.
Howsabout: Alpha Cen B Terrestrials Tug Euler Phase?!
Physical Science
Comments
Note to those who don't regularly read Systemic: to read the comments associated with a post on the Systemic blog, you have to click on the number after the post's title. From conversation in the real world, I've gathered that this seems to be completely obvious to some readers and not obvious at all (ever!) to others.
Posted by: Eric | May 15, 2008 4:37 PM
"Greg Laughlin in a classical astronomical tradition just TrES is a major, active transit survey"
Can someone translate this into English for me? I understand it is huge if true.
Posted by: steve s | May 15, 2008 5:10 PM
Translation: malformed html code - now fixed
Posted by: Steinn Sigurdsson | May 15, 2008 5:23 PM
Two problems with the TrES hypothesis: two of the telescopes are in North America and can't reach -61d declination, and I'm pretty sure that alpha Cen B would saturate even a 10cm aperture. Alpha Centauri seems like a reasonable bet for the overall topic, though.
For any bloggers who want to start prepping the nerd culture references, I recommend that you start here.
Posted by: E | May 15, 2008 5:35 PM
Alpha Centauri B Super Earth, Resist Glee!
Maybe that is it...
I am now intrigued if there are two rumours about separate discoveries...
Posted by: Steinn Sigurdsson | May 15, 2008 11:35 PM
It doesn't have to involve Alpha Centauri B, though:
Spectral Earth: Bluer sphere at single AU
A super earth perturbs thee, glacial lens
Elite search plan bares super earth glut
Partial bulge search: "Planets sure there!"
Publishes secret planet: a regular earth
Posted by: Brian Lacki | May 16, 2008 12:27 AM
Well, Greg says the words "super" and "Earth" aren't in the solution, so back to the drawing board I guess...
Posted by: andy | May 16, 2008 7:09 AM
Andy, Steinn, and all, note that Greg revealed another clue on the German language science blogs:
"The solution contains a German name." -- Greg Laughlin
See
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.scienceblogs.de/astrodicticum-simplex/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.scienceblogs.de/astrodicticum-simplex/2008/05/ratselhafte-ankundigung-einer-entdeckung.php
Posted by: Eric | May 16, 2008 10:41 AM
"Herschel bags terrestrial planet" is in there, with what looks like enough vowels left over to make an abbreviation for a star name. Something involving the Utrecht Echelle Spectrograph?
Posted by: Eric | May 16, 2008 1:09 PM
Hm, not enough consonants left.
I can get: Large Hints Euler Phase Perturbs Eta Lac
or Euler Phase Perturbs Eta Lac, Earthlings!
In fact "eta Lac" comes up a lot as a "non-word" residual. Nice star, or it would be if it were a proper star - Lac is so feeble that only alpha and beta Lac are formally designated, though there must be an eighth brightest star in there.
However HAT P-1 transiting star is in Lacerta... it is the most inflated of the known hot Jupiters, which could be a sign it is being perturbed and tidally pumped, since its period is a respectable 4.5 days.
Posted by: Steinn Sigurdsson | May 16, 2008 1:44 PM
just a short comment: it seems that there is a sentence in Greg's text which has been overlooked, and might in fact give a clue: "After all, there are only so many nearby *red dwarfs* in the sky"...This would probably rule out Alpha Centauri.
or am I missing something?
Posted by: philippe thebault | May 16, 2008 4:13 PM
I saw that, which is why I was contemplating Struve's stars.
But there is no "M" or "D" etc in the anagram.
There is a Gliese - so could be interesting new low mass M star planet, but Greg is being too clever with his phrasing.
Though I did notice we managed to take down his server, briefly.
Posted by: Steinn Sigurdsson | May 16, 2008 4:26 PM
My solution: Herschel ‘l see a big terraplanet: P Taurus. :-)
Posted by: Adrianus V | May 18, 2008 5:08 AM
Gliese charts a bluer, superearth planet!
What do I win?
Posted by: kpesanka | May 19, 2008 9:52 AM
Tell me which Gliese, and I'll give you a pat on the back!
Posted by: Steinn Sigurdsson | May 19, 2008 10:15 AM
Steinn asks "Which Gliese?"
One possibility appears to be "Gliese 310Aa".
You can spell out some numbers along with the word Gliese - for example, Gliese three ten, and then you are left with:
(gliese three ten Aa)(upplet,Usrchabl star !)
If I understand this table correctly: http://www.ari.uni-heidelberg.de/datenbanken/aricns/gliese.htm, "Gliese 310Aa" is a valid star designation.
Other possibilities for spelling out the numbers so that other star catalog designations can be used include "three", "ten", "eight", and "thirteen"...
Posted by: eric | May 19, 2008 12:17 PM
Hm. Gliese 3 is a bright K5V star, but it is far south.
Eight and thirteen suffer from lack of "I"s.
Gliese 10 is 6 Cet - an F5V star, little bit south, not likely.
Posted by: Steinn Sigurdsson | May 19, 2008 3:27 PM
Hm, Gliese 310.B is slightly interesting - G5V bright, in the North. But there is an F5V superposed right on top of it, so unlikely.
Posted by: Steinn Sigurdsson | May 19, 2008 3:38 PM
I thought eight and thirteen, which are in the original anagram, might be helpful if solution involves a designation from another (non-Gliese) catalog.
While we are talking about partial (non)solutions, I'll just mention that Tau Ceti is also in the original anagram, as is "Herschel bags tau ceti planet euler" (+rrpsar), and for the partial solution "Herschel bags terrestrial planet", the leftovers - PSAUUE - include the sourthern constellation "Apus", and its official abbreviation "Aps", as well as PsA (short for Piscis Austrinus). But I can't figure out what to do with the rest.
I think one good search strategy might be to check what known exoplanet system star designations show up in the original anagram -- Greg's work seems likely to involve adding an additional planet to a known system.
Posted by: Eric | May 19, 2008 4:13 PM
Yup.
I doubt Herschel, unless Greg is using poetic license to refer to late 18th century descriptive observations of Herschel himself - while there are Herschel telescopes etc, none that I know of do serious planet hunting.
Euler would be a theoretical result on existing data set, Gliese would of course refer to the catalog.
Tricky.
Following Gliese catalog stars have known planets: 86, 317, 581, 674, 849, 876
Following primary name planet hosts fit in the anagram, at a quick glance:
AB Pic
HAT-P-three
Lupus Tr three
Ups And
eps Tau
ChaHa eight
- all of these suck as candidates for interesting new stuff, for various reasons.
Posted by: Steinn Sigurdsson | May 19, 2008 4:43 PM
And you can add "TRES-Three" to the list.
Maybe we shouldn't count out Herschel yet -- the Herschel telescope in the Canary Islands seems to be used for planet hunting and even for planetary light gathering (reference: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/731). It is even part of TRES - it contributed to finding TRES-1 (reference: www.hao.ucar.edu/public/research/stare/tres1.pdf). Sadly, TRES-Three and Herschel can't both be in the anagram.
Posted by: Eric | May 19, 2008 5:05 PM
yes, tres three would work - ups and of course doesn't - it is supposed to be stricken from the comment list
Eps Eri also works - and is a well studied and interesting system
Can't fit a german name in with Eps Eri and get a sensible residue though
Posted by: Steinn Sigurdsson | May 20, 2008 1:47 PM
actually I am now intrigued with Eps Eri - there are interesting possible residuals in the orbit, and the planet should have gone trough periastron about a year ago - expect there was Spitzer data to see if the disk brightened, and the radial velocity campaing should have increased tempo and fidelity
an inner, lower mass planet around Eps Eri would be very interesting.
I also note with interest that Subaru can be contained within the anagram, as of course can HET...
Posted by: Steinn Sigurdsson | May 20, 2008 2:05 PM