Four high school students' boutique Wei Zi selfie.

What were you doing at 16? Playing games? Brush Tik Tok? Or do you know nothing about drinking in bars? Most people may not have achieved anything at the age of 16, but two American high school students, Kartik Pinglé (16) and Jasmine Wright (18), found a 265438+ at the initial stage of their lives.

Pingle and Wright participated in this research through the Student Research Guidance Program (SRMP) of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, which was directed by astrochemist Clara Sousa-Silva. The project aims to connect local high school students with scientists from Harvard and Massachusetts. Students and tutors will conduct a one-year research project, and will receive about 12 students each year, giving priority to underrepresented ethnic minorities.

Pingle and Wright's mentor is Tansu Daylan, a postdoctoral researcher at the Cuffley Institute of Astrophysics and Space at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They studied a TESS and a star HD 108236 with a radius slightly smaller than the sun by using the data from the space telescope of NASA's exoplanet Ling Xing, and analyzed its light curve, hoping to find out the subtleties of the planet when it transited between it and the telescope.

The result is like winning a super prize. Two high school students actually found four planets around this star! Together with the fifth planet discovered by another team using another method, five planets have been discovered in this star system.

The radii of the four planets discovered by Pingle and Wright are respectively 1.6 times, 2. 1 times, 2.7 times and 3. 1 times that of the earth. The innermost planet is a rocky planet, and the other three are gaseous planets smaller than Neptune. The most incredible thing is that they are all very close to their home star. The innermost "super earth" only needs 3.8 days to orbit the star, while the last three days are only 6.2 days, 14.2 days and 19.6 days respectively, which means that the distance from the star is only 7 million kilometers, 9.7 million kilometers and170,000 kilometers.

In our solar system, the innermost mercury is 58 million kilometers away from the sun, and it takes 88 days to orbit the sun, while the outermost Neptune takes 165 years! At this close distance, there are still three gaseous planets, which is really incredible at present. According to the solar system, the four planets in the inner solar system, including Mars, 230 million kilometers away, were all rocky planets when they were formed. In HD 108236, all four planets are less than 21100,000 kilometers away from their home star. It stands to reason that the blazing solar wind should have blown away almost all their gases, and further research may bring us more accurate results.

Wright, 18, was also very excited and shocked by their discovery. He didn't know that he had become a member of the scientific team that discovered the multi-planet system. She co-authored a paper with Grey, which was published in Astronomy Journal on June 25, 2008/KLOC-0 for peer review. I believe that their future scientific road has already begun.

Sosa Silva believes that high school students rarely publish research, and the special achievements of Pingle and Wright are even rarer. It is very unusual that they have completed an active latest astrophysical research and become co-authors of scientific journal papers. Sosa Silva also called them "paid scientists" because they can get four hours' research pay after completing their research every week to encourage them to pursue academic careers, no matter what their ultimate pursuit is in the future.

Student research programs in Harvard and Massachusetts seem to be significant. By exposing high school students to cutting-edge research, we should cultivate their interest and make them prepare for future scientific research as soon as possible. I think of Musk's educational methods. He founded a school for his children and space exploration technology company, offering eclectic courses, and regularly invited scientists and engineers from space exploration technology company to teach them and cultivate their scientific thinking and innovation ability.

Only by letting children dare to think and do things from an early age, without any rules and regulations to restrict and restrict their thoughts, can we promote the continuous progress of science and technology and human civilization.

Thesis:

Astronomy magazine /TESS discovered a bright sun-like star HD 108236 carrying a super earth and three secondary Neptunes.