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Stargazing Chris helps discover new planet
Chris Holmes has helped discover a new planet orbiting a star in the depths of space, by analysing data he downloaded as part of a project to help astronomers make new discoveries. Photo: Ben Davis/Peterborough ET
Chris Holmes has ensured Peterborough’s influence has extended light years across the universe after discovering a new planet.
Chris Holmes (48) spotted the massive planet as part of a search project on BBC2 show Stargazing Live, presented by popular scientist Professor Brian Cox and comedian Dara O’Briain.
Chris was one of two amateur planet hunters to find evidence of the distant world, along with Lee Threapleton.
The planet – which has been unofficially named ThreapletonHolmes B in honour of the two discoverers – is thought to be a huge gas giant orbiting a star in a distant corner of the Milky Way.
The self-employed systems analyst, of Blackmead, Orton Malborne, said: “I have always been interested in astronomy and went to the Stargazing event at Flag Fen on Monday night. I then watched the show and saw how people could get involved.
“I was checking some emails on Tuesday and thought I would give it a go.”
But although Chris has been given the credit for discovering the alien world, he managed to do it without using a telescope – instead using data collected from a telescope circling the Earth.
He said: “I looked at the data from 14 stars, which shows how light is travelling from them.
“There was a dip in the light from one of them, which indicated something had moved in front of the star and so I sent the data in.
“While it has not been officially confirmed as a planet yet, they have already drawn up artist’s impressions of it.
“I have been told the odds of finding something are not very high and you would normally have to look at thousands of stars to find something.
“Apparently it is quite interesting because its orbit is not what would be expected, which indicates there is another large object near-by.
“I think it is brilliant that someone without a laboratory or a telescope can add something to human knowledge and inspire people to get involved.”
The planet itself orbits a star in the Cygnus constellation, although it is many light years away from the Earth, and invisible to the naked eye.
It is about the same size as Neptune – three-and-a-half times larger than Earth – and orbits the star SPH43066540 every 90 days. It is about the same distance from the star as Mercury is from the Sun, about 55 million kilometres away, meaning it is too close and too hot to support life.
The planet is one of the first to be found by amateur astronomers but despite that Chris’s fellow planet finder has not come forward.
Chris said: “I have emailed Lee but he has not responded to my email, or the show’s producers. It is a shame as I would like to go for a drink with him.
“Since the show I have been told that planets do not get named, so officially it won’t be ThreapletonHolmes B – but it always will be my planet to me.
“I won’t be getting a telescope though – having seen some of the images from the Hubble telescope, nothing you can do from Earth will come close.”
John Mackey, chairman of the Peterborough Astronomical Society, said the planet was an important discovery.
He said: “It is a strange discovery because he did not make it with a telescope but with a computer.
“The discovery was made by looking at data of the way light curves when a planet moves in front of a star.
“At the moment scientists are trying to find as many stars as possible that have planets orbiting around them,
“The planets they are finding tend to be the size of Jupiter, but these might be the key to finding life elsewhere.”
Related links: Find out more and get involved - BBC Stargazing
BBC Sky at Night and Stargazing LIVE photo group on flickr
Factfile on Brian Cox
PROFESSOR Brian Cox has been credited with helping boost the popularity of science and astronomy after presenting a number of BBC shows on the subject.
The former keyboard player in pop band D:Ream received his doctorate in physics from the University of Manchester, completing his thesis in 1998.
In 2005, he was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship.
He splits his time between work at the University of Manchester and at the CERN facility in Geneva, Switzerland, home of the Large Hadron Collider.
It has been reported that Amazon has seen an almost 500 per cent increase in the sale of telescopes since the second series of Stargazing Live started this week.
More about Professor Brian Cox on Wikipedia
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