Category Archives: Exoplanets

Detection of Habitable Planets

Posted on April 10, 2016 by jasperluastronomy

We talked much in class about different methods of discovering extrasolar planets, and Dr. G pointed out to us that the only reason people bother looking for extrasolar planets is to try and find life outside of our solar system.  To do this, scientists have to narrow down the list of extrasolar planets into a […] Continue reading →

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Hot Jupiters and Why They Don’t Wreck our Model of Planetary Formation

Posted on April 10, 2016 by harperastronomyblog

Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, is located exactly where astrophysicists and planetary-formation theorists believe that it should be. Its size indicates that it should be located around the middle of the Solar System, where it was able to pick up rock, ice, and a lot of gases (such as hydrogen and helium) […] Continue reading →

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A Lonely Planet Wandering Through Space

Posted on April 10, 2016 by 2016spaceodyssey

Astronomers have recently announced the discovery of a planet without a sun.  Known as PSO J318.5-22, the planet is a gas giant six times the mass of Jupiter, nowhere near large enough to be a Brown Dwarf.  In the past rouge planets or “planetary-mass objects” have been discovered but their size was large enough that […] Continue reading →

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Doppler vs. Astrometric: Find the Planet

Posted on April 10, 2016 by samihahplanet

Currently, it’s quite difficult to discover new planets simply by direct observation. This is because the high interference of light caused by the planets’ respective stars makes it almost impossible to detect the light reflected off of planets. However, there are two indirect planet detection methods: Doppler and astrometric. The astrometric method relies on measuring […] Continue reading →

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Exoplanet HD 189733b

Posted on April 10, 2016 by chasejaeger

Around 63 light years away form Earth sits the exoplanet HD 189733b. The planet has a mass of 1.13 Jupiter masses and orbits its star closer than Mercury orbits the Sun. Seen from afar, this planet is blue in color and has bands of white haze in its atmosphere that resemble clouds. Though HD 189733b […] Continue reading →

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A better understanding of our Universe… and maybe aliens

Posted on April 8, 2016 by philhawkins221

captain’s blog, Stardate 69734.8 In class, we’ve been talking a lot about extrasolar planets, that is, planets that have too many suns. But actually, extrasolar planets, or exoplanets are planets that exist outside our Solar System. Exoplanets are fascinating to learn about because, as much as I love our Solar System, it’s good to get away from […] Continue reading →

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“Hot” Jupiters

Posted on April 7, 2016 by sarabkeller

Last unit, we learned about the formation of our own solar system, in which small, rocky planets formed close to the Sun, and large, gas giants formed far from the Sun (past the frost line). This is due to the fact that during planetary formation, the area closest to the Sun was extremely hot, and […] Continue reading →

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Rocky Planets Shouldn’t Get This Big…

Posted on April 6, 2016 by andyastronomer

Planetary formation theorists are scratching their heads at the recent discovery of the largest rocky world found to date – BD+20594b. This exoplanet is a rocky world with a diameter half that of Neptune. With a planet that size, one may think that we were talking about a gas giant, but we’re not. According to our present […] Continue reading →

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The Mystery of “Hot Jupiters”

Posted on April 6, 2016 by alecsolarsystem

Over the last decade, astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets, many of which have gone against our current understanding of planet formation. Most of these exoplanets orbit very close to their star, as these are the easiest to discover since they block out more light from their respective stars than planets orbiting farther out do. […] Continue reading →

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Extrasolar = ExtraSPECIAL?

Posted on April 4, 2016 by paxtonastronomy

By far, the coolest thing there is about extrasolar planets is the possibility of discovering another Earth. Of course, this is merely an opinion of my own, but I’d like to think that a lot of people agree. Statistically speaking, it is not only possible but also extremely probably that there is another Earth in […] Continue reading →

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