Indian astronomers develop methodology to understand the Exoplanets accurately

What is the News?

Indian astronomers have developed a methodology named “critical noise treatment algorithm”. This algorithm can help understand exoplanets accurately by reducing the contamination by the Earth’s atmosphere and the disturbances due to instrumental effects and other factors.

What are Exoplanets?

Exoplanets are planets that orbit a star other than the Sun. The first confirmation of detection of exoplanets occurred in 1992.

Why study exoplanets?

Astronomers study the physical properties of exoplanets with extreme accuracy as it can help them to explore the ones that could be similar to planet Earth and hence might be habitable. 

How exoplanets are studied at present?

Astronomers at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore have been studying exoplanets using the ground-based optical telescopes available in India and the data obtained by the space telescope “Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite(TESS)“.

The method used by TESS: It uses the photometric transit method to detect exoplanets. However, the transit signals received through this method are heavily affected by the noise due to various sources that pose a challenge to estimate the physical parameters of the planets accurately. 

Hence, Indian astronomers have developed an algorithm named “critical noise treatment algorithm” to reduce disturbances and understand exoplanets accurately.

Source: This post is based on the article “Indian astronomers develop methodology to understand the Exoplanets accurately” published in PIB on 12th November 2021.