Giant impacts on exoplanets might be detectable from Earth, providing another means to study these worlds. (credit: Don Davis/NASA)
Posted on 12/11/2006 7:09:04 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Typical Spaceguard telescope systems (looking for near-Earth asteroids) have a limiting magnitude (detection threshold) of about 21 for a 100-second exposure. Therefore a Chicxulub-size impact viewed from 10 light-years away would be barely detectable (20.9), even at 100% emissivity. It seems that the Spaceguard system has no chance of detecting an extrasolar impact.
The detection of extrasolar impacts would give scientist a better idea of whether our solar system was typical. In particular it would be an indicator of the presence of other rocky planets.
Telescopes are currently being developed that will look at large areas of the sky for transient astrophysical events. For example, NASA’s Swift spacecraft recently detected a giant stellar flare some 135 light-years away. These new telescopes should have greater sensitivity than the Spaceguard telescopes (many of which are hand-me-downs). It is therefore possible that one of these new systems will eventually come across a major extrasolar impact.
(Excerpt) Read more at thespacereview.com ...
Giant impacts on exoplanets might be detectable from Earth, providing another means to study these worlds. (credit: Don Davis/NASA)
Dunno, but one might detect steroid impacts on Rocky's solar plexus...
Sun and Moon from the North Pole, Inga Nielsen
Hi SunkenCiv
Please add me to your X-planets ping list!
many thanks
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