Exoplanets Research Paper

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

One of these terrestrial planets, Mercury is the topic of the next section. Mercury, one of the smallest planets, has a surface similar to that of a moon because it is cratered with some smoother areas. However, it is distinct from the moon in that the plains are the same color as the cratered areas. Mercury

Pluto is a dwarf planet with a rocky and icy body. Pluto was the ninth and outermost planet till 2006. Earth is almost 40 times closer to the sun that Pluto. Due to the immense distance from the sun Pluto is presumed to be a dark world. Pluto was named after the god of the underworld.

Exoplanets are interesting to us for a number of reasons. By locating and observing them, we are able to gather a variety of useful data that tells us details about the planet, and then compare and contrast them to other exoplanets, as well as our own planet Earth. These comparisons are our attempt at better understanding the formation history of rocky planets such as the one we live on today, and furthermore understand the future of rocky planets based on their internal composition and proximity to their host stars.

You are not able to see planets with a naked eye so Nasa uses telescopes to see in higher depth . There are different kind of telescopes that are used to look outside the Solar System some of the names are X-ray and gamma-ray telescopes and Kepler .The telescopes detect distant of planets by measuring the minute dimming of a star as an orbiting planet passes between it and the earth.Nasa has not been that useful of finding that many exoplanets because they are still trying to find out have much light they need to let in to make sure they can see the exoplanets. Nasa said that they will not stop looking until they find as many as they can.

Since the very beginning of exoplanet discovery, astronomers have been seeking to find an earth-like habitable planet. This search especially rose in importance in the 21st century when we were faced with intensifying problems of resource scarcity and environmental deterioration which directly influence our being on earth. In order to investigate regions in the Milky Way to discover Earth-sized exoplanets in and approximate to a habitable zone, NASA sent Kepler, a Discovery-class mission spacecraft to identify planets in the Habitable Zone of main sequence stars and to generate a better estimate of how many stars in the Milky Way have such planets (Overbye,

To begin with, there is more than one sun out there in space, and a sun can contain about one million planets in space. Scientists have discovered about one thousand planets orbiting distant stars. They have much more to discover! There is a big possibility that in one of those planets life could exist. Another big clue that scientist have discovered is that there are many galaxies in space and we live in one. The galaxy that Earth is located at is called the Milky Way Galaxy. A galaxy can contain many planets just like our galaxy can contains over billions of planets.

1. In January 2015, NASA announced the discovery of 8 new exoplanets by the Kepler Mission. Describe the two most Earth like of these planets, Keplar 438b and Kepler 442b and explain how they are similar to Earth.

Locating it was remarkable. It was made by watching the small movements that the star Proxima Centauri makes as Proxima B’s gravity pulls on Proxima Centauri during orbit. Unlike most other exoplanets we have found, it could not be located by looking for a slight dimming as the planet passes in front of the star because Proxima B does

Every year, NASA find hundreds of other planets. Usually, these "exoplanets" don't hold any major significance but scientists yesterday found one that might change that. The European Southern Observatory found a planet the size of Earth orbiting our closest star. This one is different than the rest meaning that a possibility of aliens is all but a reality.

An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star that is out with our solar system. A large number of exoplanets have been discovered so far, however it is exoplanets that are within the star’s habitable zone that are the most sought after. An exoplanet is considered to be within the habitable zone if it is at an orbital distance from the star it orbits that allows it to be at a surface temperature that can support water in its liquid state. If the exoplanet is too close to the star any water will boil and evaporate, while if it is too far away the planet will be

The Kepler telescope helps discover planets beyond our solar system. NASA launched Kepler in March 2009. The telescope, which is about 9 feet in diameter and 15.3 feet in height, now orbits the sun every 371 days. It observes 100,000 stars in a portion of our Milky Way galaxy to check whether the planets revolve around the stars. Kepler is explicitly looking for planets that could support life. For this, the worlds must meet two conditions: they should be small enough to sustain life, which is about the size of Earth, and they should be in the "habitable zone" of their stars. In the habitable zone, conditions on the planet, such as temperature, would be accurate for the presence of liquid water, and possibly life forms. When an orbiting planet

These techniques that the astronomers used in detecting the properties of the planets is more likely in detecting the properties of the exoplanet and other far object in the solar system like the Pluto. Even if it is so far away, Astronomers were able to see exoplanet by observing the host star with various method they used like transit method, the one method they used to find the trappist-1. Observing distant star requires the use of the space telescope like the Kepler telescope and spitzer telescope and it is study by the use of electromagnetic radiation emit by the star and the planet. (spectroscopy) To be able to know the properties of the exoplanet, astronomers first determine the properties of the host star of the exoplanet such as

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).

"A planet is a celestial body that revolves around a central star and does not shine by its own light " (Grolier, 1992). The only planetary system that is known to man is our