Catalog Search Results
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
A tiny percentage of exoplanets can be detected transiting—or passing in front of—their host stars. Combined with Doppler shifts, transits provide information about a planet’s size, mass, density, and likely composition. Learn how ambitious amateur astronomers can use this detection technique in their own backyards..
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Explore the distinctive biosignatures that show the presence of life of any kind on an exoplanet. Then close with Professor Winn’s tip sheet on exoplanetary discoveries likely in the near future—from evidence of moons to planets being destroyed by giant stars..
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Survey the history of spectroscopy to understand how a telescope and a diffraction grating can disclose the composition of a star and its planet. Then learn how transits and occultations are ideal for analyzing planetary atmospheres, paving the way for the search for signatures of life..
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
See how data from the Kepler spacecraft confirms a scenario straight out of the movie Star Wars: a planet with two suns. Investigate the tricky orbital mechanics of these systems. A double star also complicates the heating and cooling cycle on a planet. However, the view is spectacular!.
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Join the quest for life on exoplanets, focusing on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI)—a hunt for signals from alien civilizations inspired by a landmark paper in 1959. See how the famous Drake equation points to factors that determine how many such civilizations may exist..
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Peer into the future at ambitious projects that may one day succeed in collecting light directly from an Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of a nearby star. Examine three different engineering approaches: the coronagraph, interferometer, and starshade..
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Learn about the exciting mission of exoplanetary science—the study of planets orbiting stars beyond the Sun. Review the eight planets in our solar system, which provide a baseline for understanding the more than 1,000 worlds recently discovered in our region of the Milky Way galaxy..
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
The planet search took a giant leap forward in 2009 with the launch of the Kepler spacecraft, which used the transit technique to observe nearly 200,000 stars over a four-year period. Study Kepler’s goals, results, and the persistence of the astronomer who championed it..
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Dig deeper into the treasure trove of data from the Kepler mission, which discovered hundreds of compact multiplanet systems, with planets much more closely packed than in our solar system. Explore the dynamics of these groupings, which have planets interacting strongly through mutual gravitation..
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
In billions of years, the Sun will expand into a red giant, possibly engulfing Earth. Learn how planet-finding techniques give astronomers insight into the processes inside giant stars. Then study the planets around these behemoths for clues about Earth’s ultimate fate..
12) Lava Worlds
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Explore the theoretical limit of the smallest possible orbit for a planet, taking into consideration tidal stresses and other destructive processes. Then focus on Professor Winn’s search for such objects, which found probable lava worlds—planets heated to rock-melting temperatures by their extreme closeness to their host stars..
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
As recently as 1990, it seemed plausible that the solar system was a unique phenomenon in our galaxy. Thanks to advances in technology and clever new uses of existing data, now we know that planetary systems and possibly even a new Earth can be found throughout galaxies near and far. We are living during a new golden age of planetary discovery, with the prospect of finding many worlds like Earth. Most of the thousands of planets we've detected can't...
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Chart the history of exoplanet hunting—from a famous false signal in the 1960s, through ambiguous discoveries in the 1980s, to the big breakthrough in the 1990s, when dozens of exoplanets turned up. Astronomers were stunned to find planets unlike anything in the solar system..
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Pinpoint the location of the nearest exoplanetary systems to Earth. First, get the big picture on the layout of our Milky Way galaxy, its size, and the Sun’s position. Also learn why the Kepler spacecraft focused on exoplanets much more distant than those targeted by the Doppler technique..
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Explore two other indirect approaches for finding exoplanets: first, by measuring the Doppler shift in the color of a star due to the pull of an unseen orbiting planet; and second, by measuring the tiny drop in the brightness of a star as a planet transits in front of it..
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
The success of exoplanetary science has spurred a wave of new projects to increase our knowledge of worlds beyond our solar system. Survey ground- and space-based programs that are now in the works. Professor Winn gives a preview of a space mission that he and his MIT colleagues are designing..
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Learn how a sensitive new instrument led the way in finding planets smaller than the Jupiter-sized giants that dominated the earliest exoplanetary discoveries. Halfway in size between Earth and Neptune, these worlds have uncertain properties. For clues about their nature, consider how our solar system formed..
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
The standard theory of planet formation is based on our solar system. But does this view require revision based on the existence of misplaced giant planets—hot Jupiters circling close to their parent stars? Compare competing theories that try to resolve this conflict..
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Begin your search for planets that may harbor life by studying the conditions that make Earth habitable, including its distance from the Sun, surface temperature, atmosphere, and oceans. Then examine strategies for finding earthlike planets and the progress to date..
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