Lithuanian Star Survey Could Offer Shortcut To Finding Exo-Earths

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The old adage that we are stardust is literally true. But is there a link between a star's given chemical composition and the types of planets it may form?

For almost a decade now, a dedicated team of Lithuanian astronomers has been trying to answer this conundrum using a state-of-the-art spectrograph at a telescope some 70 km outside Vilnius.

The Vilnius University astronomers have been taking spectra (measurements of wavelengths of light) from thousands of solar type stars on every clear night since 2016. A prime goal is to take the chemical fingerprints of these bright F, G, and K spectral type stars to determine whether there are possible links between the chemical makeup of these stars and the planets that they may harbor.

We find overabundances of some stellar chemical elements and those planet-hosting stars, Vilnius University astrophysicist Gražina Tautvaišienė, the survey's lead and head of the Moletai Astronomical Observatory, told me in her office. If we can do this successfully, the goal will be to find a shortcut to detecting rocky planets, Tautvaišienė, who has just been elected as Vice President of the International Astronomical Union, says.

The team has already garnered the spectra of some 1500 bright solar type stars using the high-resolution Vilnius University Echelle Spectrograph. About the size of a compact car, VUES sits alone in a climate-controlled room on a floor below the main dome of the Moletai Observatory's 1.65-meter optical telescope.