How science really works or why exoplanets were completely unknown before 1995, now less than 30 years ago.

SuperComputing on home PC's

Planets outside our solar system far out in the universe is the hottest topic of astronomers and astrophysics these days. On these pages you can read why they were detected and why they were detected so late, now only 20 years back ( in 1995 ). And now we have already  nearly 4000 discoveries...

Further you can read why this disproves three of the main today used hypothesis in modern astrophysics and astronomy. Not by doubtfull and unprovable claims but by computer programs which are repeatable and verifiable by everyone. Data for these computer programs is from highly trustable federal instances (US and european)  and accessible to everyone. If this would concern only astronomy and astrophysics one could say: 'if one or the other star gets classified wrong is of no concern to me'. No, the consequences out of these wrong hypothesis  concern everyone, even more, human lives depend on and are endangered by these wrong hypothesis. Not to speak of the severe damage that the whole science experiences, starting by geology over biology over archaeology and and and....

 
When I studied physics/electrical engeneering in the 60th of the last century it was undisputed that the central star of our solar system – the sun, while rotating around the center of the milky way - was eternally fixed in one of the focal points of the elliptical orbits of the planets Mercury to Pluto (poor old Pluto was degraded lately: it’s no more a planet, its just a planetoid by now).

According to this representation the barycenter of our solar system was thought to be inside the sun. Eccentric to the center of the sun, but inside the sun. Generations of highly intelligent mathematical geniuses had tried to describe our solar system in mathematical terms and had failed utterly on the n-body problem..


One problem was imminent to this representation: if the sun was fixed in the focal point of the ellipsis, how could the obvious energy production in the sun be explained? One of the explanations which was thought of till  the 30ths of the last century was the energy delivered by the falling meteorites which hit the sun. In the good last the physicist community agreed 1937/1939 upon that the energy production was due to the hydrogen to helium burning and the proton-proton-reaction, the so called Bethe-Weizsäcker cycle. Here you can read some more on the  neutrinos with multiple personality. By the way: the neutrino problem is far from solved! And there  are still a lot of questions

While at university I tried myself too to solve the problem of the n-body problem. But without the help of a computer this proved to be practically irresolvable. You can deduce the solar orbit by reducing the system to a 3 body system (Sun,Jupiter,Saturn) but nothing more. So I had to wait till the 1980th when computers (and their FPU’s) became mighty enough to run such simulations in finite time. One of my first programs on a 386 with FPU was thus a simulation of our solar system in C++. A prerequisite was to prove that the simulation stabilizes after a few turns to a stable outcome with differing starting conditions. This program evolved by and by – at first a 2d simulation, then 3d simulation, then a graphical output with possible rotation about all axes (a rudimentary OpenGl), numerical log files for all essential parameters etc.. It showed clearly and reproducible that the sun isn’t fixed in the center of gravity of our solar system but rotates itself around the barycenter of our solar system.


Now this course of the sun or orbit around the barycenter was by itself in the 1980s a sensational fact: because now it was easy to find other solar systems like ours out in space, you only had to watch out for ‘wobbling’ stars in the universe. But my intent went further: I wanted to prove that this course of the sun (or orbit around the gravitational center) was one of the main reasons for the energy produced in the sun. This would solve another big question of astronomy: the missing masses or how they are called today, the dark masses or dark matter. Because if the energy produced in the sun is due to mechanical forces and not fusion, then big stars have not to glow by themselves, they may be dark stars. Stars will in this case only shine and produce visible light if they have planets orbiting them, without planets they are much too dark to be visible even with our biggest telescopes today (only in the infrared they may be visible). But they are visible by their gravitational effects: namely as gravitational lenses.(Another problem – the missing energy or dark energy how it is called today is connected with another hypothesis – the big bang. We won’t discuss this here.)
 

In retrospect in the year 2018 the following is a chronology of the acceptance by physics that all shining stars have planets orbiting them (In parethesis you'll find the year when it was written/added to this page):

But it seems it won't take long till the here written is fully accepted. Now you can already hear astronomers say: 'planets are no big deal! They are commonplace! And 40 or more percent of the stars must have planets!' Others speak already of 70-80%. Read again these pages and you will know it's exactly 100 percent. May be some wobble so faint that we can't measure it, but that changes nothing on the fact that all 'shining' stars have planets.(2009)

Others tell in 2009 : "There could be one hundred billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy...". and Berkeley says in end of 2010: "Earth-Sized Alien Planets May Be Surprisingly Common" and   "25% of Sun-like stars have Earth-like planets.. (and)...there could be even more Earth-size planets"(2010)

Evidence from observations lead now in 2013 more and more researchers to the same conclusion: "Extrapolating from Kepler's currently ongoing observations and results from other detection techniques, it looks like practically all Sun-like stars have planets".(2013)

In 2018/2019 the news increase (from Keppler, UVES, HARPS data etc) that all shining stars have planets and thus all shining stars do wobble. Forbes 2018: "most (if not all) stars likely have planets around them" and there are studies which tell explicitely that every star has at least one planet orbiting.

And you can already hear: 'Nobody knows how brown dwarfs form'. Which is only a very small step away from: 'Nobody knows how stars form'. If you follow todays literature which states:  'Brown dwarfs form like stars'(The Brown Dwarf — Exoplanet Connection, J. W. Mason,Springer 2008) this is already today a synonyme. Even clearer: " We have (currently) no definition of what a planet is". Which is nothing else than the negative expression of: "We have currently no definition what a star is" .

After 20 years now (!) these papers (A&A,Jan 2011) are first proves of the calculations and descriptions on this site: "The barycentric motion of exoplanet host stars: tests of solar spin-orbit coupling"  or this pdf:  "Does a Spin–Orbit Coupling Between the Sun and the Jovian Planets Govern the Solar Cycle?" (more under new facts and links). And everyday new findings prove the main statement of this site.

But there are a lot more open questions what concerns the sun. ESA too plans a very tight visit of the sun (in 2020) with its Solar Orbiter Mission. These are some of the questions ESA's Solar Orbiter shell help to answer:

• What drives the solar wind and where does the coronal magnetic field originate from?
• How do solar transients drive heliospheric variability?
• How do solar eruptions produce energetic particle radiation that fills the heliosphere?
• How does the solar dynamo work and drive connections between the Sun and the heliosphere? 

On October 30, 2018 NASA retired Keppler Space Telescope. Read more here. Launched on March 6, 2009, the Kepler space telescope detected in the extremely short time of  9 years nearly 5000 exoplanets (confirmed and yet to be confirmed). Read more here. The succesor to Kepler, Tess was launched on 19 of april 2018.

And while Kepler was late by 9 years Europ's ESA wants to start in Oct/Nov. 2019 Cheops(CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite) - 24 years too late. 500 stars with known exoplanet systems are sheduled to get characterized more exactly.

Copyright © R,Cooper-Bitsch 2006,2009,2010,2018