Peter's Success is out of this world

Peter Jalowiczor, 45, a valued member of the society, has been officially named by the University of California's Lick-Carnegie Planet Search Team as the co-discoverer of planets HD31253b, HD218566b, HD177830c and HD99492c.

Using two home computers, he spent many a late night analysing thousands of astronomical measurements released by the Santa Cruz-based university in 2005, after hundreds of hours of his spare time from March 2007 onwards, Peter analysed data, working the figures and creating graphs.

With the Stars being analysed being so incredibly far away and no telescope yet built can directly see their discs, let alone (the discs) of any planets going around them, so astronomers have had to devise other indirect techniques of detection, as at the moment direct imaging is still in its infancy.

If a planet orbits a star it causes a tiny wobble in the star's motion and this wobble reveals itself in the stars light.

Specifically written software works out the properties about the planet's orbit and precise measurements of the star taken over many years enable scientists to build up profiles of systems as planets are gradually revealed.

Using Doppler spectroscopy, Peter pinpointed the possibility of the existence of exoplanets, and sending the data back to Santa Cruz for confirmation of his findings.

The first exoplanet was catalogued in 1995 and astronomers have so far confirmed the detection of 500 at the time of writing.

Peter's findings have now been published in Astrophysical Journal.

The Four Planets

• HD31253b - 172 light years away
• HD218566b - 98 light years away
• HD177830c - 190 light years away
• HD99492c - 58 light years away

Peter Jalowiczor said "It is an honour and privilege to be listed in the journal and I hope that my work will inspire others."