NIST · U.S. · NIST AI
Distant Exoplanets Shared by Light from Wobbling Stars
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Key facts
- Astronomers can’t measure such a small effect, but they can measure stars moving at only 1 meter (39 inches) per second
- I’ve been coming here for 15 years, doing exactly that,” said celebrated exoplanet hunter Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, creator of the original iodine cell
- Doppler spectroscopy is a flexible way of detecting planets,” said NIST physicist Gillian Nave, who manages the FTS operation
- At NIST’s FTS, the light from the star is replaced with light from a high-intensity xenon lamp, producing a white-light spectrum without any sharp lines
Summary
Secure.gov websites use HTTPS A lock or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the.gov website. Ask most folks what they would need to find planets orbiting distant stars, and few will list a bottle of iodine. Yet that element plays a vital role in the search for extrasolar planets (exoplanets) in the form of devices called “iodine absorption cells”: sealed glass cylinders about the size of a soup can containing a thin gas of iodine molecules. The optical properties of the gas, meticulously measured at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), serve as an unvarying benchmark to detect fluctuations in light from remote stars caused by orbiting planets.