Indulging my appetite for all things astronomical and hoping that this message is of interest to others, here's some news on the hunt for extrasolar planets - planets orbiting other stars, that is.
If I read things right, the link below will be the place to look for data about these new worlds. Currently there's just five, but by this time next year, I expect to see
dozens
more and by 2012, perhaps
hundreds
. Please note that all of Kepler's discoveries are coming from one, small region of the sky, not all of it. (See
6
, below.)
Ok, there's a whole stack of numbers in rows and columns. So what does it all mean? Well, here's half a dozen pointers...
1.
Info on new planets is in the
Blue
-colored section and info on the star that given planet is orbiting is in the
Tan
-colored section.
2.
The first three (TrES-2, HAT-P-7 b and HAT-P-11 b) were found by ground-based telescopes, before Kepler was launched. They just happened to be located in the part of the sky that Kepler was programmed to study. Therefore, they were used to calibrate and refine the accuracy of it's instruments.
3.
Kepler 4b to 8b are bona fide new discoveries. Please do click on each of the names to bring up more info on each planet. Yes, I know! Lots of obscure technical terms and so on. But please ignore these in favor of the two, easily-understood schematics - the Light Curve and the Inclination Diagram.
3A.
The Light Curve.
Please compare the upper line (
green
) with lower one (
red
) and notice the difference. The green line is where all the data points of the star's light output are averaged out. Nice and steady, just like our good ole Sun.
The red line is where something has caused a drop-off in the star's output. That 'something' is the newly-discovered planet, passing in front of the star. Kepler's instruments are so sensitive that they can register even this tiny fluctuation in the star's light!
If you want to get a better handle on what's going on here, please go to this Wiki page... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_transit ...and compare the images with the Inclination Diagrams for Kepler 4b thru 8b.
3B.
The Inclination Diagram.
These diagrams are simulated views of these extrasolar planets, shown transiting the face of their parent stars. Notice how similar they are to the images of Venus, doing the same thing across the face of our Sun? Yep. It's just the same kind of event, only seen from
much
further away. The simulations are accurate in terms of the relative sizes (planets to stars) and also the angle of their orbits.
4.
Please note that the planets themselves, Kepler 4b to 8b, can't actually be
seen
in the same way Venus can
seen
.
No. They're too far away, too small and their faint, reflected light is totally drowned out by the massive light output of their parent stars. So, computers compare the numerical value of the two light curves (
green
line vs.
red
line) and subtract one from the other. The resulting values are then used to create the simulations. Other astronomical projects use the same methods to find extrasolar planets and they display their results in a similar way. The SuperWASP project is one such, on-going search program and here are it's results. http://www.superwasp.org/wasp_planets.htm
5.
The bottom two lines show data for the Earth and the planet Jupiter (
blue
-colored section) and our Sun with the parent stars of the Kepler planets (
tan
-colored section). Scientists are looking for planets the size of our world, orbiting at similar distances and taking about the same time (Period) to do so. If you look at the 'Period' column for Kepler's 4b thru 8b, you'll note these guys are real quick and real close to their host stars!
Compare the stats. Earth's period (year) is 365.25 days. The period (year) for 4b thru 8b is from 3.21 to 4.88 days! Mercury, the hottest and closest planet to our Sun takes 88 days to go round in it's period (year). So these planets are informally known to astronomers as '
roasters
'. You can see why!
6.
Of the hundreds of planets Kepler's expected to find, most of them will be too hot or too massive (gas giants like Jupiter, 300 times the size of Earth) to have the potential for life as we might recognize it. However, when all the data's in, there's a chance that we'll have discovered a few dozen with Earth-like orbits, temperatures and sizes/masses.
What intrigues me is that Kepler is looking only at one part of the sky, here... http://kepler.nasa.gov/Science/targetFieldOfView/
Please do click on the sky maps there and consider these thoughts.
6A
.
In this field of view, Kepler can detect only those planets that pass in front of their parent stars. So, for every planet Kepler finds using the transit method, there may well be hundreds more than simply don't line up in this way and therefore go undetected. The true number of Earth-like planets in Kepler's field of view could be much, much higher.
6B
.
Kepler is only looking at a
tiny
portion of the night sky. The true number of Earth-like planets in our galaxy could number not in the thousands, but in the millions or even...
"BILLIONS!"
That was for the late, great Carl Sagan.
Thanks,
BAA.
_________________ Nietzsche was wrong - god never lived.
iPondR Graduate Thinker
Joined: Aug 19, 2009
Posts: 534
Location: Aussie Prawn Facility; District 10
Posted:
Sun Jun 20, 2010 1:29 pm
BAA, I thought there were a LOT more than 5 exoplanets found using the transit method ... also, Jupiter is not 300 times the size of earth (12,742 vs 142,981 km dia) - am I misreading?
Maybe you refer to planets
directly
observed?
However, BILLIONS & BILLIONS... totally agree. Just finished watching 'Cosmos' & I highly recommend it! You can watch it 4 free online but DVD is the way to go
_________________ I take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance, any day... - Douglas Adams
BornAgainAthiest Graduate Thinker
Joined: Jun 16, 2008
Posts: 669
Location: Here.
Posted:
Mon Jun 21, 2010 9:22 am
iPondR wrote:
BAA, I thought there were a LOT more than 5 exoplanets found using the transit method ... also, Jupiter is not 300 times the size of earth (12,742 vs 142,981 km dia) - am I misreading?
Maybe you refer to planets
directly
observed?
However, BILLIONS & BILLIONS... totally agree. Just finished watching 'Cosmos' & I highly recommend it! You can watch it 4 free online but DVD is the way to go
Whoops! My bad, mate.
Here's what I meant to say...
The Kepler probe
itself
has discovered 5 exoplanets.
Yes, there are many more, just as you say. I should have made it clear that I wasn't talking about the ground-based searches, just Kepler itself.
Umm.... about Jupiter.
I mixed up my terms. Rookie mistake! I switched between
size
and
MASS
when I shouldn't have. Jupiter isn't 300 times the size of Earth, it's 300 times the mass - a totally different meaning.
Thanks for pointing these glitches out.
Cheers,
BAA.
_________________ Nietzsche was wrong - god never lived.
iPondR Graduate Thinker
Joined: Aug 19, 2009
Posts: 534
Location: Aussie Prawn Facility; District 10
Posted:
Wed Jun 23, 2010 2:35 am
BornAgainAthiest wrote:
Whoops! My bad, mate.
[thanks for the cultural reference there...
mate!
]
Here's what I meant to say...
The Kepler probe
itself
has discovered 5 exoplanets.
Yes, there are many more, just as you say. I should have made it clear that I wasn't talking about the ground-based searches, just Kepler itself.
Umm.... about Jupiter.
I mixed up my terms. Rookie mistake! I switched between
size
and
MASS
when I shouldn't have. Jupiter isn't 300 times the size of Earth, it's 300 times the mass - a totally different meaning.
So, you're saying that size doesn't matter? (hehe) Heavy, dude. Massive.
Thanks for pointing these glitches out.
I do what I can, 'cause I could care enough, to care enough! For my science homies.
Cheers,
BAA.
B.A.A., thanks for bringing the Kepler mission to our attention. It's going to change our understnding of what's out there, something a burnt piece of toast will never do [if you know what I mean] Cheers
Here's to
BILLIONS!
_________________ I take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance, any day... - Douglas Adams
BornAgainAthiest Graduate Thinker
Joined: Jun 16, 2008
Posts: 669
Location: Here.
Posted:
Thu Aug 05, 2010 6:50 am
B.A.A., thanks for bringing the Kepler mission to our attention. It's going to change our understnding of what's out there, something a burnt piece of toast will never do [if you know what I mean] Cheers
Here's to
BILLIONS!
[/quote]
Hmmm....
"...a burnt piece of toast..."?
(Thinks.)
Ok, iPondR, howabout this?
If memory serves, there's that situation in Arthur C. Clarke's, '2001: A Space Odyssey', where astronaut Dave Bowman has arrived in orbit around the moon Iapetus and is describing what he sees to Mission Control, back on Earth. The surface of Iapetus is sharply divided into two radically different terrains. Bowman describes the bright, highly reflective side of the moon as being like, 'frozen milk' and the other, very dark half as being like, 'burnt toast'!
Bull's eye? Do I win a prize?
Btw, do you recall Bowman's last recorded words, when he takes a space pod from the Discovery and goes to explore the strange, black monolith in the center of the frozen milk?
p.s.
Here's a double take for you, iPondR!
Clarke wrote this stuff in the late 60's, about the time Trek was first being aired. Iapetus was just a blurry image in even the largest telescopes. Look how far we've come in such a short time!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iapetus_(moon)
_________________ Nietzsche was wrong - god never lived.
iPondR Graduate Thinker
Joined: Aug 19, 2009
Posts: 534
Location: Aussie Prawn Facility; District 10
Posted:
Fri Aug 06, 2010 3:04 am
you know, that's become quite a meme
'it's full of stars...'
(liked the dopler) it'd make a good t-shirt
hmmm... the prescience of AC Clarke is also evidenced in his forseeing the telecommunications satellite. Coincidence? Alien implant? Hmmm?
BTW -
2001
was so long, that back in the day, you got an intermission (like Lawrence of Arabia) and you got to go & buy yourself an icecream, while the projection booth guys did their stuff. And then there's that soundtrack...
DAAAA
, DAAAAAAAAA,
DAAAAAAAAA
,
DA DAHHHHHHHHH!!!!
[DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM]
_________________ I take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance, any day... - Douglas Adams
(
B
A
A
's breast swells with patriotic pride.) Hah! We sure made those suckers to last!
_________________ Nietzsche was wrong - god never lived.
iPondR Graduate Thinker
Joined: Aug 19, 2009
Posts: 534
Location: Aussie Prawn Facility; District 10
Posted:
Mon Aug 09, 2010 8:07 am
Of course you can get all boasty, well done cobber! Any nation that can claim Carl Sagan can have my salutes... [remember, AC Clarke was a Pommie, though...]
wikki-ki wrote:
Themes of religion and spirituality appear in much of Clarke's writing, though his position on "Religion" is ultimately somewhat complicated. He said, "Any path to knowledge is a path to God—or Reality, whichever word one prefers to use".[59] and described himself as 'fascinated by the concept of God'. When he entered the RAF, he insisted that his dog tags be marked "pantheist" rather than the default, Church of England.[23] In 2000, Clarke told the Sri Lankan newspaper, The Island, "I don't believe in God or an afterlife,"[60] and he identifies himself as an atheist.[61] He was honoured as a Humanist Laureate in the International Academy of Humanism.[62] He has also described himself as a "crypto-Buddhist", insisting that Buddhism is not a religion.[63] He displayed little interest about religion early in his life, for example, only discovering a few months after marrying his wife, that she had strong Presbyterian beliefs.
BTW - amazing how you found something by Hoagland, the 'Face on Mars' guy... he's a piece of work in his own right... but now I have an insight into what motivates him so much to see alien artifacts in every friggin photo NASA ever sent back to earth... hmmmm. Thanks!
_________________ I take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance, any day... - Douglas Adams
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