Kepler 62f: Earth Size Planet

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.

The possibility of life beyond Earth is a tantalizing idea long prompting our species to wonder if there are other worlds where life exists. As space technology advances, the chances of finding life on other planets are now greater than ever. With new technologies such as satellites and solar panels, scientists are able to expand their exploration farther into our solar system. In 1995, an astronomer named Michel Mayor together with Didier Queloz discovered 51 Pegasi b. This was truly an incredible discovery that rocked the science community. Pledges b, a wobbling star the size of our sun, was slowly approaching, and according to Mayor’s

A red dwarf star’s HZ, for example, would be much closer to the star itself compared with that of our sun. It is also important to determine the planet’s size and mass, which is imperative in deciding whether it can sustain an atmosphere. Maintaining an atmosphere is essential for life to exist and small a planet with a small gravitational force at its surface may not be capable of retaining one. The Kepler transit data can only measure planet masses, diameters, orbital periods, and parent star types and although this information is useful for determining habitable zones, further data is required to determine true habitability. The latter can be done by studying the composition of the exoplanet’s atmosphere.

Planetary Comparison SCI/151 May 3, 2011 Norman Stradleigh Planetary Comparison Planet Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the fifth largest of the planets of the Solar System. Earth’s surface is 71 percent water and is the only astronomical planet currently known where life exists. Earth is our home planet. Scientist and astronomers have studied our planet for Centuries and they have discovered much about our planet. Scientist have gained so much more knowledge of our Solar System in the last half-century after the NASA launched the first spacecraft and travel beyond Earth’s atmosphere has opened up to those who wish to explore. In the following paragraphs, we will discuss Earth and the

A Timely Discovery The exoplanet known as Kepler-453b is what is known as a circumbinary planet. A circumbinary planet is a planet that orbits two stars, and Kepler-453b is the tenth such planet discovered so far. It is a timely discovery not only because it was discovered at around the same time that news broke out of the world’s superpowers looking to make Star Wars a reality by waging war in space, but also because the real-life Tatooine was discovered by chance in a classic case of being in the right place at the right time.

In the outer limits of our solar system there is a planet unlike any other, Pluto. Pluto was discovered in February of 1930 by an American astronomer, Clyde Tombaugh. It is the only planet to have been discovered by an American. All though we have known of the existence of Pluto for over thirty years now, there are still many mysteries surrounding this celestial body. Being the farthest planet has made it difficult to study Pluto, Adding to the obscurity of this strange planet is that the capability to send spacecraft such distances has never been achieved. Through the wonders of science and astronomy, there are many things that can be determined, concluded, and hypothesized about this obscure planet.

2. What might this imply about Kepler 11’s planetary system? Support your answer. This implies that the Kepler 11 planetary system is very much like our solar system. The distance (m) of Kepler-11b

Adam Smith Mrs. Caruk AP Bio 5/19/2017 A Brave New World: Scientists Hope to Have Discovered the Next Earth Scientists have discovered a new planet that they believe may be capable of housing life. LHS 1140 b, the planet in question, is six times heavier than Earth, yet only 1.5 times as large, suggesting that it is an extremely dense ball of metal and rock. LHS 1140 b is ten times closer to its sun than Earth, as well, making the orbit only 25 days. The sun LHS 1140 b orbits, LHS 1140, is an old, dim red dwarf star, 40 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cetus. Everything about it is rather ordinary; red dwarfs are the most common type of star, and the light that LHS 1140 produces is too dim to be spotted with the naked eye.

Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz established another milestone, recording 51 Pegasi b, also known as Bellerophon, as the first established exoplanet in 1995. Located about 50 million light years away in the constellation Pegasus, Bellerophon is known as the first planet outside our solar system that orbits a star similar

In summary, according to the Kepler data about the Kepler 438b and 442b's distance from parent star Lyra, their size and their duration to orbit their parent star, Phillips validated that very likely both exoplanets are very Earth-like and probability of them to be habitable is

The field of exoplanets is transitioning from an age of discovery into an era of planetary characterization. In the last decade, the Kepler spacecraft revealed that planets are ubiquitous within the galaxy, and over the coming years, TESS will find hundreds of nearby terrestrial planets. A primary NASA goal in astrophysics from the Science Mission Directorate is to “search for life on planets around other stars.” To achieve this, the properties of transiting candidate planets must be well understood to assess potential habitability. In particular, the planetary radii derived from the light curves of wide-field surveys are significantly underestimated. For Kepler, by a factor of 1.5 on average (Ciardi et al. 2015). High-resolution imaging

The discovery of Kepler-452b “Second Earth” wasn’t easy for the astronomers . In 2009,NASA’s kepler spacecraft has been observing stars for the photometer , an instrument that uses to detect transit events , in which a planet crosses in front and dims the star host’s brief and roughly regular period of time . In this last test Kepler observed 50000 stars , including Kepler-452 ; the exploratory light curves in the Kepler science team were sent for analysis . To help confirm the finding and better determine the properties of the Kepler-452 system, the team searched for better observations at the University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory, the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory on Mt. Hopkins, Arizona, and the W. M. Keck Observatory atop

Introduction – Pluto’s Position in the Solar System Pluto used to be considered the ninth planet of our solar system, but in 2006 Pluto 's planetary classification was changed to a dwarf planet (Choi). Pluto is located in the Kuiper belt and it orbits beyond Neptune, which makes Pluto a trans-Neptunian object, or TNO (Schneider and Arny 380-381). Pluto’s elliptical orbit of the sun takes 248 years, and on average it is approximately 3.6 billion miles from the sun (Dunbar). Pluto has an extremely cold atmosphere since it is so far away from the sun. On average, Pluto’s atmospheric temperature is -390 degrees Fahrenheit, or 40 K (Schneider and Arny 380). NASA recently launched a new mission to explore Pluto and its atmosphere with the New Horizons spacecraft, and we have also learned new information about Pluto’s topography. Pluto has many mountain ranges, lands with deep craters, frozen plains, and flowing nitrogen ice. The frozen plains on the eastern side of Pluto are believed to be younger than its deep-cratered, western areas. The eastern plains of Pluto are only thought to be 100 million years old, and the western area may be billions of years old (“NASA’s New Horizons Finds”). Pluto also has five moons that are being explored as part of the New Horizons mission. Pluto’s moons are: Charon, Hydra, Nix, Styx, and Kerberos – all of which have variable spin rates (“Last of Pluto’s Moons”).

As the student assistant to Dr. Steven Lucas, we have studied many different factors of the two stars known as Rodia and Alderaan. Since Dr. Lucas is interested in finding more life within the universe, and finding more Earth-like planets; we have come to the conclusion that Rodia should be studied more carefully and be highly observed.

Juno: An investigation of our biggest planet About Jupiter Uncovering the mysteries of Jupiter is a crucial step for a greater understanding of our Solar System. Being the massive planet that it is, this mysterious planet may hold many answers to how our the Solar System formed and evolved. The understanding of the origins of the universe includes answers even to the formation of Earth itself. Many believe that the research of Jupiter will lead to discoveries on planet formation and the role of giant planets on the formation f stars and other smaller bodies. Mysteries of Jupiter include its composition, what is under its clouds, what is in its core and its magnetic field. Research on the amount of water in the planet will tell us about the