Discovery
HD 40307 d was discovered through the Doppler spectroscopy method, which functions by measuring the variations in radial velocity in a star produced by the gravitational effect of orbiting exoplanets. The radial velocities were measured by the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher spectrography system (HARPS) at the La Silla Observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert. The other less massive planets orbiting HD 40307 were discovered in the same way: HD 40307 b and HD 40307 c first, and then HD 40307 e, HD 40307 f, and HD 40307 g. The discovery of HD 40307 d and the former two was announced at the astrophysics conference that took place on June 16–18, 2008 in Nantes, France.
Read more about this topic: HD 40307 D
Famous quotes containing the word discovery:
“That the discovery of this great truth, which lies so near and obvious to the mind, should be attained to by the reason of so very few, is a sad instance of the stupidity and inattention of men, who, though they are surrounded with such clear manifestations of the Deity, are yet so little affected by them, that they seem as it were blinded with excess of light.”
—George Berkeley (1685–1753)
“The new supplants the old. Yet men’s minds are stuffed with outworn bunk. Educating the young in the latest findings of authorities and scholars in the social sciences is important. It is equally important to devise ways and means for aiding the middle-aged and old to reexamine hang-over unscientific doctrines and ideas in the light of recent discovery and research.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“Next to the striking of fire and the discovery of the wheel, the greatest triumph of what we call civilization was the domestication of the human male.”
—Max Lerner (b. 1902)