Lonely Jupiter-like planet 900 light years away tells us more about gas giants

Lonely Jupiter-like planet 900 light years away tells us more about gas giants

Astrophysics grad is part of an international research team studying exoplanets

One night last fall, University of Cincinnati astrophysics graduate Paul Smith waited anxiously for data to start rolling across his computer screen from the James Webb Space Telescope a million miles from Earth.

The telescope was directed at an object even farther away - much farther away. Smith is studying a planet 901 light years away. That means light from its star takes 901 years to reach Earth.

The planet is named after this star, TOI-2031A, in accordance with NASA's unpoetic, numbered naming conventions. The TOI stands for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite Object of Interest.

Even though it was a clear night, the star was too faint to see with the naked eye. Its starlight captured in the space telescope was generated in the Middle Ages.

Exoplanet TOI-2031Ab is a lonely gas giant, the only planet in its solar system about 901 light years from Earth. An artist's rendering shows what it might look like. Illustration/NASA

Competing for time on James Webb

Smith and his research partners beat out other scientists for precious telescope time. Roughly 90% of research applications don't make the cut each year in the competitive peer-review process.

Now they were hoping their calculations were correct and the planet would cross in front of its star during their allotted observation time.

Using the telescope's powerful near-infrared spectrographic sensors, researchers would be able to learn more about the planet and its atmosphere as it transited its star's face. As leader of the data analysis for the project's first planet, Smith got to retrieve the data, what astrophysicists call the first look.

"It was a lifelong dream of mine coming true. I was up all night to get the first look at the data," he said.

Paul Smith, UC astrophysics graduate

"What you want to see is a U-shaped curve that proves that we had the telescope pointed at the star at the moment of transit," he said. "If our calculations were wrong, we would just get a flat line and I would have had to tell everyone we missed it.

"Thank God, we got a light curve. That was so exciting."

Smith and his research colleagues presented their findings on TOI-2031Ab at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Denver in April.

UC astrophysics graduate Paul Smith took part in a 2023 UC Department of Geosciences field trip to California to study its volcanic and seismic geology. He is pursuing a bachelor's degree in geosciences from UC's College of Arts and Sciences. File Photo/Michael Miller

Fascination of planets outside our solar system

Cincinnati Observatory astronomer Wes Ryle, who was not part of the study, said planets outside our solar system are helping us understand our own.

"Exoplanets are one of the hottest topics in astrophysics right now, with the ultimate goal of learning how our solar system compares to others and the likelihood of finding other habitable worlds," Ryle said. "Studies like this help evaluate the role of gas giant planets and their migration in creating a planetary system."

Smith earned a bachelor's degree in physics and astrophysics in UC's College of Arts and Sciences after spending 20 years at Cincinnati consumer products giant Procter & Gamble and another 10 as a writer and speaker, sharing his expertise in business leadership.

Now he's earning a second bachelor's degree in geosciences at UC and a master's degree in planetary science from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.

"I've always loved astronomy as a kid. I got my first telescope from my parents at 8 years old and took it up on the roof so I could get closer to the moon," he said.

He chose a career in business but began reevaluating his priorities after the COVID-19 pandemic.

"My dad was a businessman. His dad was a businessman. All of his friends were businessmen. I just assumed that's what a responsible adult is supposed to do," he said.

He enrolled in the astrophysics program at UC and added classes in another interest, geology. The two sciences are useful for studying planets, he said.

"It fits nicely in the intersection of astrophysics and geology. I'm studying a planet like a geologist but using techniques used by astrophysicists," he said.

Featured image at top: UC physics graduate Paul Smith visits the Cincinnati Observatory and its historic 1845 telescope. He is studying exoplanets using the James Webb Space Telescope. Photo/Connor Boyle/UC Marketing +Brand

UC astrophysicist Paul Smith is part of an international team that is studying five distant gas giants - Jupiter-like exoplanets light years away that could shed light on the formation of our own solar system. Photo/Connor Boyle/UC Marketing + Brand

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