Thursday, March 4, 2021

Local news stories

Virgo's GJ 486 / Wolf 437 - 26 light-years away - has a transiting planet. 45 light-years away is LHS 3844; this one also transits, and now has delivered enough data for some Bern Uni scholars (very proud to be at Bern) to run some simulations.

Transits are generally found where the planet rides very close to the star. The closer the better. Although, not so better for any potential colonists; as noted, neither of these planets are fit for human habitation.

I admit I find difficult to comprehend the Bernais press-release for LHS 3844 b. It doesn't seem based on observations so much on simulations based on those observations. The Wolf 437 b article is much better written although I cringe a bit at its title (hot new neighbour!!).

As for Wolf 437, here I ask why it has taken so long for a transit to be noticed from here, given that it is so close, and low-mass at that (so radial spectrometry should have noted any planets' wobble). Better late than never. Time to pre-cover its data, I think.

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