Tag Archives: extrasolar

Hubble and the TRAPPIST-1 System

An artist’s illustration of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system  One thing from this unit I found interesting was learning about extrasolar planets. The Hubble Space Telescope was the first to detect an exoplanet’s atmospheric conditions and collect data about its makeup. In 2000, Hubble was used to study the exoplanet 209458 b which was the first […] Continue reading

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Discovering Extrasolar Planets

Have you ever wondered if us humans are alone in the vast expanse of the universe? Do worlds similar to those in our solar system exist? Scientists are currently looking for answers to these questions by studying extrasolar planets, or planets that orbit around other stars. Three main methods allow scientists to analyze these questions […] Continue reading

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Blog #6: Detecting Extrasolar Planets

The photo above features the transit method of detecting extrasolar planets. Detecting extrasolar planets is a very delicate and challenging task for scientists. The distances between stars and relative sizes of stars compared to planets make it extremely hard to pick them out. Stars are also typically a billion times brighter than planets. There are […] Continue reading

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Detecting Extrasolar Planets

Extrasolar planets can be difficult to detect because they are tiny, far away, and dim, but the Doppler Method provides an indirect way to find them. This method involves looking for alternating blueshifts and redshifts in the star’s spectrum, which reveal a star’s motion around its center of mass. This motion could reveal the presence […] Continue reading

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‘Oumuamua: An Interstellar Visitor

In 2017, a small, long object between 100 and 1,000 meters in length and between 35 and 167 meters in height and width passed through the inner solar system with a trajectory and speed only possible if it originated from beyond our solar system. This object, now known as ‘Oumuamua, is one of the first […] Continue reading

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Which Exoplanet Could Be Planet B?

The transit method has already been used to discover a few thousand exoplanets and continues to discover more through both old observations and current missions. With this method, the brightness levels of stars in other solar systems are measured. When the brightness dims, this is a sign that an extrasolar planet may have passed inContinue reading “Which Exoplanet Could Be Planet B?” Continue reading

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Extrasolar Planets and the Search for Life

Kepler 22-b Extrasolar planets are planets that orbit a star other than our own. Being in another star system, these worlds are very hard to observe since they are so far away and the light they produce pales in comparison to that of the stars they orbit. Because of this, although their existence had already … Continue reading Extrasolar Planets and the Search for Life Continue reading

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Seven Brave New Worlds

Do you ever feel like one day the Earth is going to be too crowded and we would run out of resources? Is there any other habitable world out there that we could some day create a new life on? Maybe I’ve seen too much fictional movies that I somehow thought it is possible! But… Continue reading Seven Brave New Worlds Continue reading

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Earth like Planets

It is interesting to think about the existence of extrasolar planets. Now that we are starting to find a lot of giants, the new thing is finding Earth like planets. Recently, Kepler has found three Earth-like planets. I am anxious … Continue reading Continue reading

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Kepler 2.0 Looks for Earth 2.0

Within the last week, a new break through has been made in the search for extrasolar planets, or planets orbiting another star other than our Sun. As we’ve know, other stars, or other distant suns, hold the possibility of other solar systems. Ideally, these solar systems may contain another Earth-like planet, which could possibly lead […] Continue reading

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