April 18, 2011 - Astronomy Now Online
Astronomers are finding tantalising hints of planets around dead stars, it was revealed today at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, Wales.
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Burleigh, along with Fraser Clarke of Oxford University and Emma Hogan of the Gemini South Observatory, named the search for planets around white dwarfs the Degenerate Objects around Degenerate Objects Project, or DODO. Their strategy is to sample around 40 young white dwarfs within 65 light years. Deep, wide-field images in the near-infrared using Gemini and the Very Large Telescope in Chile were obtained where the common proper motion of companions is being analysed over one to three years in order to confirm if they are indeed orbiting the white dwarfs. DODO is sensitive to a few Jupiter masses.
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