1 / 36

Bringing E.T. into Your Classroom The Search for Extra solar Planets

Bringing E.T. into Your Classroom The Search for Extra solar Planets. Gary Lawhon Dave Baltenberger. Nebular theory of solar system formation would lead us to believe planets should be associated with most stars. Why are these planets so hard to find?. Planets are really small.

ranae
Download Presentation

Bringing E.T. into Your Classroom The Search for Extra solar Planets

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Bringing E.T. into Your ClassroomThe Search for Extra solar Planets Gary Lawhon Dave Baltenberger

  2. Nebular theory of solar system formation would lead us to believe planets should be associated with most stars .

  3. Why are these planets so hard to find?

  4. Planetsarereallysmall If the Sun is a grapefruit on the West coast of US then The Earth is a pinhead about 15 meters away and Jupiter is a marble 80 meters away and The nearest star to our solar system is on the East coast………….so You are trying to find a pinhead on a grapefruit about 2500 miles away plus the star is a billion times brighter than its planets

  5. How can we find Extra solar Planets? Direct Detection Despite advances in technology it is beyond modern telescopes to find extrasolar planets very easily using direct detection

  6. How can we find Extra solar Planets? If we can’t just find these extra solar planets in a telescope how do we know they exist? Indirect Evidence Measure properties of the star and reveal the presence of extra solar planets

  7. All objects in the solar system orbit a common center of mass Sun is so large that this center of mass is inside the Sun Does a Planet influence its Star?

  8. Center of Mass

  9. Orbiting planet causes its star to “wobble” http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/R/radial_velocity_method.html

  10. Make Your Own Wobbling Sun

  11. Can We Detect Extrasolar Planets using other Methods? Transit method: A planet passing it front of its star produces a change in brightness of 1/10,000 lasting for 2 to 16 hours Can we detect that? Credit: NASA

  12. Kepler mission The Kepler spacecraft lifted off March 6, 2009

  13. Kepler field of view

  14. http://archive.stsci.edu/prepds/kepler_hlsp/

  15. Excel graph from Kepler data

  16. http://lasp.colorado.edu/education/outerplanets/exoplanets.php#keplerhttp://lasp.colorado.edu/education/outerplanets/exoplanets.php#kepler

  17. http://astro.unl.edu/naap/esp/animations/transitSimulator.htmlhttp://astro.unl.edu/naap/esp/animations/transitSimulator.html

  18. http://kepler.nasa.gov/multimedia/Interactives/keplerFlashAdvDiscovery/#http://kepler.nasa.gov/multimedia/Interactives/keplerFlashAdvDiscovery/#

  19. planethunters.org

  20. Detecting Extra solar Planets • Use star wobble to detect planets • Wobbling star models • Kepler looks for dimming of the star to detect presence of extra solar planet • Use Kepler data to create Excel graphs to identify pattern of star dimming • Use websites to recreate hunt for extra solar planets

  21. GPS Standards Astronomy – SAST6 – Students will explore connections between cosmic phenomena and conditions necessary for life. Physical Science - SPSP9 – Students will investigate the properties of waves. f) Explain the Doppler Effect in terms of everyday interactions. • (Doppler shift of spectral lines & radial velocity) Biology – SB1 – Students will analyze the nature of relationships between structures and functions in living cells. d) Explain the impact of water on life processes. SB5 – Students will evaluate the role of natural selection in the development of the theory of evolution. (concepts of what defines the “habitable zone” can be brought in here)

  22. GPS Standards Earth Systems – SES1 – Students will investigate the composition and formation of Earth systems, including Earth’s relationship to the solar system. • (habitable zone) Chemistry SC3 – Students will use modern atomic theory to explain the characteristics of atoms. f) Relate light emission and movement of electrons to element identification. (spectroscopy and detection by radial velocity/Doppler shift) SC4 – Student will use the organization of the Periodic Table to predict properties of elements. b) Compare and contrast trends in the chemical and physical properties of elements and their placement on the Periodic Table. (concepts of Habitable Zone, carbon-based life vs. thoughts on silicon-based life. Also water vs. ammonia)

  23. GPS Standards • Environmental Science – SEV2 – Students will demonstrate an understanding that the Earth is one interconnected system. a) Describe how the abiotic components (water, air, and energy) affect the biosphere. (Habitable Zone)

  24. Astronomy Themed Summer Workshops: Chem., Physics, Phys. Sci. GPS • High School Teachers Only This Year • Search for Life in the Universe • Sun Earth Connection: Space Weather • Stars: Formation of the Elements • Crash, Bang, Galaxies! • Email gears@colstate.edu for information • http://cheller.phy.georgiasouthern.edu/gears This workshop funded by NASA Office of Education Grant NNX09AH83A and supported by the Georgia Department of Education, Columbus State University, and Georgia Southern University

More Related