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Una década de éxito en la búsqueda de planetas

HARPS celebra su décimo aniversario

18 de Septiembre de 2013

Durante el 16 y 17 de septiembre de 2013, un encuentro científico en Ginebra titulado 10 Years of Science with HARPS (10 años de ciencia con HARPS) celebró una década de funcionamiento del instrumento HARPS (High-Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher), el buscador de planetas más importante del mundo. El evento rindió homenaje a los extraordinarios resultados científicos proporcionados por HARPS, así como a la excepcional ventana que ha logrado abrir hacia una de las áreas más apasionantes de la ciencia astronómica actual — la búsqueda y caracterización de planetas existentes alrededor de otras estrellas.

HARPS, un instrumento que forma parte del telescopio de 3,6 metros de ESO en el Observatorio La Silla en Chile, inició sus operaciones de manera oficial el 1 de octubre de 2003 y es el responsable de algunos de los logros más destacados en su campo.  Detectó el exoplaneta de menor masa medida a la fecha; desafió las teorías de la formación planetaria al encontrar exoplanetas orbitando en dirección opuesta a la rotación de su estrella anfitriona; captó la presencia de planetas en la zona habitable de una estrella cercana y descubrió cientos de nuevos exoplanetas. De hecho, por medio de HARPS fue posible detectar casi dos tercios de los exoplanetas confirmados, que cuentan con masas inferiores a la de Neptuno [1]. Sus observaciones también fueron los primeras en demostrar que los planetas de baja masa son muy comunes alrededor de estrellas similares al Sol, entendiendo que el 30% de ellas albergan súper-Tierras o planetas con masas comparables a la de Neptuno [2].

El instrumento ha logrado todo esto y más por ser el dispositivo para la búsqueda de exoplanetas más preciso del mundo. Es capaz de encontrar planetas a través de la velocidad radial de las estrellas. En otras palabras, calcula la rapidez con que un objeto se acerca o aleja de nosotros, y puede hacerlo de manera tan precisa que permite medir variaciones en la velocidad menores a los cuatro kilómetros por hora (aproximadamente la velocidad promedio a la que camina una persona [3]). Tal información puede emplearse para encontrar evidencia de planetas a medida que orbitan sus estrellas anfitrionas y luego deducir la separación entre ambos, permitiendo a los astrónomos calcular la cantidad de energía que recibe el planeta, una característica importante para evaluar su habitabilidad. Esto nos lleva un paso más adelante en la búsqueda de vida extraterrestre.

En el encuentro, organizado por el Observatorio de Ginebra, un distinguido grupo de astrofísicos que incluyó al Director General de ESO, Tim de Zeeuw, analizó los aspectos más relevantes de la vida de HARPS hasta el momento y las aventuras que este y sus sucesores aún tienen por delante.

Notas

[1] La masa de Neptuno es unas 17 veces superior a la de la Tierra.
[2] Este resultado fue confirmado posteriormente por la misión Kepler.
[3] Debido al efecto Doppler, esta variación en la velocidad radial induce un desplazamiento del espectro de la estrella hacia longitudes de onda más largas al alejarse (un corrimiento al rojo) y a longitudes de onda más cortas cuando se acerca (un corrimiento al azul). Este el es pequeño desplazamiento del espectro que HARPS es capaz de medir.

Contactos

Francesco Pepe
Observatoire de l’Université de Genève
Suiza
Tel: +41 223 792 396
Teléfono celular: +41 79 302 47 40
Correo electrónico: francesco.pepe@unige.ch 

Stéphane Udry
Observatoire de l’Université de Genève
Suiza
Tel: +41 22 379 24 67
Correo electrónico: stephane.udry@unige.ch 

Richard Hook
Encargado de Prensa de ESO
Garching bei München, Alemania
Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Teléfono celular: +49 151 1537 3591
Correo electrónico: rhook@eso.org

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A decade of discoveries from HARPS
A decade of discoveries from HARPS
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