Century Old Evidence of An Exoplanet

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Astrophysicists find triple star system with 'hot Jupiter'

Pasadena, CA— You can never predict what treasure might be hiding in your own basement. We didn’t know it a year ago, but it turns out that a 1917 image on an astronomical glass plate from our Carnegie Observatories’ collection shows the first-ever evidence of a planetary system beyond our own Sun. This unexpected find was recognized in the process of researching an article about planetary systems surrounding white dwarf stars in New Astronomy Reviews.

Here’s what happened: about a year ago, the review’s author, Jay Farihi of University College London, contacted our Observatories’ Director, John Mulchaey. He was looking for a plate in the Carnegie archive that contained a spectrum of van Maanen’s star, a white dwarf discovered by Dutch-American astronomer Adriaan van Maanen in the very year our own plate was made.

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[Peter B]

Well, how awesomely neat is that? It raises the obvious question of how many other Easter Eggs there are in old astronomical data.

I'm also reminded of how several astronomers "discovered" Uranus before it was formally discovered, but in each case those earlier astronomer catalogued what they thought was just another faint star.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

I'm also reminded of how several astronomers "discovered" Uranus before it was formally discovered, but in each case those earlier astronomer catalogued what they thought was just another faint star.

If I remember correctly Galileo twice observed Neptune but believed it was a background star on both occasions.