The Traveling Exhibit Science Background

Part C: Planet Quest

prepared by Dr. Cherilynn Morrow for the Space Science Institute Boulder, CO

C. Planet QuestAre there planets orbiting distant stars where life could exist? Could

we see them so far away?

For the first time in human history, we have detected planets orbiting distant stars.

During the past decade, we have discovered over 150 (and counting) of these extra-solar planets.

We do not generally “see” these planets, but infer their presence using clever techniques to observe how they affect their parent stars.

Almost all of these planets are like the gas giant Jupiter rather than Earth, but new missions are planned to detect Earth-sized worlds.

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Some planets were known to the ancients who watched them move against the night sky.

Courtesy NASA’s Navigator Program

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were the “Wandering Stars.”

“Planet” comes from the Greek word for “wanderer.”Courtesy NASA’s Navigator Program

Over the centuries, telescopes got better and better…

Galileo and his Refractive Telescope, 1609 Herschel’s Reflecting Telescope, 1789

The Hooker Telescope - Mount Wilson, ca 1920

Courtesy NASA’s Navigator Program

And other planets were “discovered.”

Uranus

Pluto

Neptune

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The year 1781The first planet “discovered.” William and Caroline Herschel

The year 1846 First observed by Galle and d'Arrest (based on calculations by Adams and Le Verrier).

The year 1930 Discovered by Clyde Tombaugh

Courtesy NASA’s Navigator Program

“There are infinite worlds both like and unlike this world of ours...We must believe that in all worlds there are living creatures and planets and other things we see in this world.”

Epicurius c. 300 B.C

But what about more distant worlds? Thousands of years ago, Greek philosophers speculated.

Courtesy NASA’s Navigator Program

And so did medieval scholars.

The year 1584

"There are countless suns and countless earths all rotating around their suns in exactly the same way as the seven planets of our system . . . The countless worlds in the universe are no worse and no less inhabited than our Earth”

Giordano Brunoin De L'infinito Universo E Mondi 4

Courtesy NASA’s Navigator Program

In 1995, a breakthrough:the first planet around another star.

A Swiss team discovers a planet – 51 Pegasi –48 light years from Earth.

Artist's concept of an extrasolar planet (Greg Bacon, STScI)7

Didier Queloz and Michel Mayor

Courtesy NASA’s Navigator Program

Methods to Detect Planets

Spitzer, for the first time, captured the light from two known planets orbiting stars other than our Sun. But so far, most of the extra-solar planets are being detected using INDIRECT methods.

Artist Concept: NASA’s Spitzer Infrared Telescope

Transit

Methods to Detect Planets

Doppler – detecting the star wobbling in the line of sight due to the planet’s gravitational pull

Astrometry – detecting tiny wobble of stars against other stars in the background.

Planet Transit – detecting a tiny drop in brightness of the star as a planet passes in front

Coronograph – blotting out the light of the star so planets can be “seen”

There are several complementary methods for detecting planets orbiting distant stars.

Wobble

Astrometry Coronograph

Inside the Planet Quest AreaFinding Planets Orbiting Distant Stars

Star Wobble

Planet TransitKeeping count of the new

planets being discovered

CoronographAn Atlas of new worlds discovered

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Alien Earths: Spin the

wobbling star-planet toys

When the child chooses two wooden balls and spins them, one ball does not orbit around the center of the other ball. Rather, each ball orbits around a common center of mass or balance point.

If the balls have different masses, the balance point moves closer to the more massive ball. The more massive ball wobbles as the less massive ball goes around it.

Which ball is more massive, blue or red?

Massive Planets Cause Stars to Wobble• Stars and their planets also

move about the common center of mass.

• Since the mass of a star is so much greater than the mass of a planet, the “center of mass” (i.e. “balance point”) is located close to (but not at the center) of the parent star.

• This means that stars with planets in orbit around them are not stationary. Rather, they move slightly about this balance point producing a gravitational wobble!

• The gravitational wobble of the Sun is dominated by the gravity of the most massive planet Jupiter.

Star moving toward observer

(positive velocity)

Star moving away

far side

of orbit

near side

of orbit

Source of animationhttp://astronautica.com/detect.htm

copyright 1997 Garber Astronautics

The animation illustrates a planet's orbital affect on the

position of its parent star. The effect is greatly exaggerated.

NASA’s SIM PlanetQuest Mission will survey nearby stars for Earth-size planets by measuring the wobble of stars against other stars in the background.

Artist Conception: NASA’s SIM PlanetQuest

NASA’s SIM PlanetQuest Mission

Are there terrestrial planets orbiting nearby stars?

This method of detection is

called astrometry.

Scientists use the Doppler shift to measure the tug of planets on stars. Here is how it works:

If an unseen planet tugs the star back and forth…

…the light from the star shifts slightly to the red as the star moves away from you.

…and slightly to the blue as it moves toward you.

Astronomers can detect these shifts by very carefully observing the spectra (or colors) of the stars.

So far, nearly all extra-solar planets have been discovered with this technique

Courtesy NASA’s Navigator Program

When a planet passes by (or transits) a star, we can detect a slight decrease in the amount of light from the star.

Detecting Planets: Transit MethodAlien Earths:

Turn-the-Crank Transit

Device

Check out the dips in starlight when a planet

passes by!

Kepler

NASA’s Kepler mission will use

the transit method.

“Planets”

“Star”

Graphic data

Crank

NASA’s Kepler Mission is specifically designed to survey our area of the Milky Way Galaxy to detect and characterize hundreds of Earth-size and larger planets in or near the habitable zone.

The “habitable zone” encompasses the distances from a star where liquid water can exist on a planet's surface.

Artist Conception: NASA’s Kepler Spacecraft

NASA’s Kepler MissionAre there planets orbiting distant stars where life could exist? Could

we see them so far away?

Telescopes that block the light from the central star can take images of planets that might be in orbit around them.

The Keck Interferometer combines the light of two 10-meter telescopes to take images of hot Jupiter-size planets that shine bright in infrared light.

Keck Interferometer

The Terrestrial Planet Finder

Terrestrial Planet Finder will search from space for planets as small as Earth and for signs about whether they can support life.

Coronograph: We will block out the bright light from the star.

Courtesy NASA’s Navigator Program

Orion Nebula – star forming region

Betelgeuse – red giant

Rigel – massive blue giant

Orion’s

BeltHD 38529: Sun-like star

2 planets detected

Bellatrix – blue giant

The Constellation of Orion Using the Doppler method, two planets have been

discovered around a Sun-like star in Orion that can be seen with the naked eye!

Artist’s Concept of the two planets in orbit around the star called HD 38529 in the Orion Constellation (Lynette

Cook)

NOTE: the giant worlds we are detecting in orbit around other stars may well have moons (like Jupiter’s Europa) that might be habitable, but we would not be able to detect their presence because they are so small and distant.

COMPARE The orbits of planets

in our solar system (dashed blue lines)

TOThe orbits of the two Jupiter-sized planets

detected in the star system HD 38529

(solid blue & green lines)

WHAT DO YOU NOTICE?

The orbit of planet “b” is closer to its star than Mercury is to the Sun!

The orbit of planet “c” is more elliptical than Jupiter’s orbit.

Other Star Systems are Different

6 years to orbit the star

2 weeks to orbit

For the first time in human history, we have detected planets orbiting distant stars.

During the past decade, we have discovered over 150 (and counting) of these extra-solar planets.

We do not generally “see” these planets, but infer their presence using clever techniques to observe how

they affect their parent stars (e.g Doppler & Transit methods).

Almost all of these planets are like the gas giant Jupiter and can have an important impact on whether

there are habitable planets in the system.

New missions are planned to detect Earth-sized worlds.

C. Planet QuestSUMMARY