Detecting The Properties Of The Planets

There are many differences among our planets and moons in our Solar System. The geologic activity, composition, interior structure, magnetic field, and atmosphere are all factors that help give these planets and moons there identity. We have sent probes over the years to help examine these properties.

The best technology available today for studying the chemical composition of stars and planets is spectroscopy, a scientific tool that dissects light into its component colours (Astronomy mag. P.31). “A planet within 100 light-years of Earth is close enough to provide sufficient light for scientists to dissect light into its component colors” (Ray Villard, Astronomy ). Spectrographs are used by astronomers to observe discrete spectra. Discrete spectra are produced by gases, such as … when specific wavelengths of light are absorbed or emitted by the gases. This causes dark bands to appear on the spectrum where the specific wavelengths of light are absent. A scientist can

Astronomers study the planets, stars, and other celestial objects to try to understand how the universe works. They also study things like collisions, black holes and other things that could potentially affect earth. Astronomers gain information about objects in space from telescopes, and satellites. They can also use mathematical equations to find the positions of planets and stars in our universe. These telescopes and satellites observe light reflected by things such as planets, meteors, or stars in space and use it to make observations. Then the Astronomers job is to collect and analyze the data observed.

The reading on terrestrial planets from chapter 6 provides readers with a little insight on the similarities and differences between the planets. These planets include Earth, Venus, Mercury, and Mars. Although these planets have very different properties, they are connected due to their history. There are scientific laws that help people understand, compare, and contrast these planets, such as gravity, chemical composition, and temperature.

Many physical properties of stars can be found by using a little bit of light. One property of a star is luminosity. Luminosity is the quantity of energy created in a star and then released as electromagnetic radiation. The brightness of a star is a blend of luminosity and distance of a star and can also depend on the quantity of energy absorbed in the direction of a star. Another property of a star is distance. Astronomers use parallax to establish the distance to an object. As Earth travels around the Sun, they monitor neighboring stars from various positions. They are then able to measure how much the star seems to move to establish the distance to the star.

Telescopes have not yet revealed the planet's disk. To estimate how big it is, the astronomers must rely

In the article called “Another Earth” by Alice Savage and David Wiece started with the sharing of the theory that life outside of Earth could exist. The author’s son thinks that it’s possible for other living being to exist and live on other planets, but the author had this theory as just a theory until the moment when scientist found a lot of planets that can potentially have live life on them. After that, he starts to share his memories about what people thought about life outside of Earth back in the 70’s. He shares this idea that to find a planet we have to look at stars. He talks about two methods of how we can find a planet looking at a star. Planets have their gravitational pull and when they are moving around a star we can see them

We used a device that measured the changing light and planet size as it passes around the sun. Another type of test would be radio velocity, this is performed by shaking the stars to reveal the gravitational pull of the surrounding planets. A telescope was sent into space in 2009 to look more closely at the Milky Way in an attempt to find planets and other solar systems. There is a fairly high chance that a star could have a planet around it and in my opinion, as high as fifty percent or .5. Like our solar system, others are more likely to have planets that are not habitable.

The main searches for exoplanets are being done by space missions. The Kepler space mission is finding the most exoplanets, however there are many other space missions like Gaia, MOST, CoRoT, and SWEEPS, that are finding exoplanets in habitable zones. There are also ground missions including the Anglo Australian Planet Search and HARPS which is done in Geneva. This graph shows all the exoplanets found that are less than 10Me or 1.5Re mapped on the habitable zone. The sizes of the circles indicate the radius of the planet, which has been estimated, if not

Furthermore, scientists have this big prediction in which they think that in about ten years they will prove themselves right. Technology develops more and more each day and in about ten years scientist might have advanced tools to travel through space and discover more. In some planets that scientists have discovered, they had found a gas giant. “A gas giant is a planet that is mainly composed of Helium and Hydrogen.” An example of a planet that has gas giants would be Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. If a gas giant is found in a planet, the gas giant can give many characteristics to the planet. A planet that contains a gas giant could be big and cold, sometimes the characteristic of the planet gives scientist a big clue that there is no life in that planet. For example, if the weather is to cold in that planet or if there is

On April 18th, 2013, NASA’s Kepler satellite had detected an exoplanet in the Kepler-62 star system, Kepler-62e, one of the farthest exoplanets from its parent system within Kepler-62’s orbit. Using transit photometry, NASA could find a total of 5 exoplanets orbiting this star, including Kepler-62e. With a mass of around 36 earth masses and a radius 60 percent larger than Earth’s, Kepler-62e was a rather easy discovery using transit photometry. Transit photometry involves calculating the magnitude of a star over time; watching for deviations in the star’s magnitude to differentiate whether the deviation is normal or increased. For the record, any detected star system receives the designation “Kepler” in lieu of the Kepler satellite which detects them; planets are given the same name with the exception of a letter added onto the end.

By looking at the different wavelengths or the spectrum of light from a celestial object, you can tell many of its properties and features. To do this, the Hubble Telescope is equipped with various scientific instruments. Each instrument used

of other planets such as Saturn or Mars are a great way of studying other planets surfaces

The radial velocity method was used to detect the first exoplanet, 51 Pegasi b (51 Peg b) around a main sequence star, 51 Pegasi (51 Peg). The radial velocity method uses the variations in velocity of a star due to the gravitational pull from an exoplanet (Lissauer 2002). Furthermore the velocity isn’t measured in terms of actual speed but in terms of light based on the Doppler effect. The Doppler effect occurs when a star moves. When it moves toward us, its wavelengths of light are shortened and when a star moves away from us, its wavelengths of light are lengthened. Through the continued observation of the Doppler effect on a stars spectrum of light, the velocity of a star is inferred. Any change in a stars velocity is caused by a sufficiently massive companion, an exoplanet (Lissaeur 2002).

Ancient astronomers were able to differentiate between stars and planets, as stars remain relatively fixed over the centuries while planets will move an appreciable amount during a comparatively short time.