Planet Quest

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

2
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and
Saturn were the “Wandering Stars.”

“Planet” comes from the Greek word for “wanderer.”

 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
 And other planets were “discovered.”

Uranus The year 1781

The first planet “discovered.”
William and Caroline Herschel

Neptune The year 1846

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

Pluto The year 1930

Discovered by Clyde Tombaugh
5
But what about more distant worlds? Thousands
of years ago, Greek philosophers speculated.

“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
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 Bruno
in De L'infinito
Universo E Mondi
4
In 1995, a breakthrough:
the first planet around another star.

Didier Queloz and Michel Mayor

A Swiss team discovers a planet – 51 Pegasi –

48 light years from Earth.
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Artist's concept of an extrasolar planet (Greg Bacon, STScI)
 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
 Methods to Detect Planets
There are several complementary methods
for detecting planets orbiting distant stars.

Wobble 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”
Transit Coronograph Astrometry
 Inside the Planet Quest Area
Finding Planets Orbiting Distant Stars

Keeping count Planet Transit

An Atlas of of the new
new worlds planets being Star Wobble
Coronograph
discovered discovered
16
 Alien Earths:
Spin the wobbling When the child chooses two
star-planet toys 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.

Which ball is more massive, blue or red?

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.
Massive Planets Cause Stars to Wobble
• Stars and their planets also move The animation illustrates a
about the common center of mass. planet's orbital affect on the
position of its parent star. The
effect is greatly exaggerated.
• 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 Star moving toward observer
in orbit around them are not (positive velocity)
stationary. Rather, they move
far side near side
slightly about this balance point of orbit of orbit
producing a gravitational wobble!

• The gravitational wobble of the Sun

is dominated by the gravity of the Star moving away

most massive planet Jupiter.

 NASA’s SIM PlanetQuest Mission
Are there terrestrial planets orbiting nearby stars?

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

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

If an unseen …the light from …and slightly to Astronomers can

planet tugs the the star shifts the blue as it detect these shifts
star back and slightly to the moves toward by very carefully
forth… red as the star you. observing the
moves away spectra (or colors)
from you. of the stars.
Detecting Planets: Transit Method
Kepler Alien Earths: Check out the dips in starlight
Turn-the-Crank when a planet passes by!
Transit Device

NASA’s Kepler
mission will use
the transit method.
“Star”

Crank

“Planets” Graphic data

When a planet passes by (or transits) a

star, we can detect a slight decrease in
the amount of light from the star.
 NASA’s Kepler Mission
Are there planets orbiting distant stars where life could exist?
Could we see them so far away?

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

Telescopes that block the

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

Keck Interferometer

The Keck Interferometer

Terrestrial
combines Planet Finder
the light of will
two 10-
search from
meter space for to
telescopes planets
take
as small
imagesas Earth
of hotand for
Jupiter-size
signsplanets
about whether
that shine they canin
bright
support life. light.
infrared

The Terrestrial Planet Finder

 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!
Betelgeuse – red giant

Bellatrix – blue giant

e lt
HD 38529: Sun-like star B
n ’s
2 planets detected io
Or

Orion Nebula – star forming region

Rigel – massive blue giant

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.
 Other Star Systems are Different
COMPARE
The orbits of planets
6 years
to orbit in our solar system
the star
(dashed blue lines)
2 weeks
to orbit TO
The 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.

 C. Planet Quest
SUMMARY
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.