Tagged Questions
1
vote
2answers
96 views
Is there anyone calculate the probability of extrasolar planets?
After reading an recent news "Stargazers capture first picture of a planet with two suns – just like Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine in Star Wars", I am thinking that: can we calculate the ...
4
votes
1answer
132 views
What day/night cycles, climate and seasons would experience Alpha Centauri Bb inhabitants?
Alpha Centauri Bb is an exoplanet orbiting Alpha Centauri B. It is asserted that given the close distance to the star the planet should be tidally locked.
The orbiting period of the planet is about ...
2
votes
1answer
57 views
Alpha Centauri Bb: Comparing astrometric precision vs doppler precision
How do you compare astrometric precision vs doppler spectroscopic precision?
In particular will the Gaia spacecraft to be launched next year be able to confirm the existence of Alpha Centauri Bb? ...
5
votes
1answer
57 views
Is there an established standard for naming exoplanets?
I understand that exoplanets are named by adding a lowercase letter to the a designation of the planet's parent star or stellar system, beginning with 'b' (the star itself is 'a') in order of ...
7
votes
1answer
47 views
How are exoplanets confirmed?
In reference to the Kepler 22b news:
The Kepler team had to wait for three passes of the planet before
upping its status from "candidate" to "confirmed".
This is possible because the planet ...
10
votes
2answers
113 views
Why did population III stars lack planets?
Jay Wacker1 (professor of physics at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) stated:
The first stars (known as Pop III) were made out of hydrogen and helium. They had no planets.
Why couldn't ...
3
votes
1answer
60 views
What could this very dark planet be made of?
I was reading about the planet TrES-2b which is less reflective than charcoal. What could possibly be its composition?
14
votes
2answers
163 views
What percent of planets are in the position that they could be viewed edge-on from Earth? (and thus able to undergo transits)
Star number 12644769 from the Kepler Input Catalog was identified as
an eclipsing binary with a 41-day period, from the detection of its
mutual eclipses (9). Eclipses occur because the orbital ...
3
votes
2answers
19 views
Is angular resolution important when we want the spectra of an Earth-like exoplanet?
Right now, our resolution + light gathering power are still far too low to take direct images of exoplanets, so we're limited to subtracting the planet spectra from the parent star spectra when the ...
3
votes
1answer
37 views
Do stars of higher metallicity have more planets in highly-inclined Pluto-like orbits?
In an answer to a previous question of mine, one that asked about the planar orbits of inner planets, I was told the following (emphasis mine):
On the subject of different solar systems, I would ...
6
votes
3answers
399 views
Are we capable of discovering planets in the Andromeda galaxy?
I just watched this SpaceRip video on YouTube which shows pictures taken by Hubble while looking into the disk of the Andromeda galaxy to study a certain type of variable star. It occurred to me that ...
0
votes
2answers
48 views
Study of exoplanets reaching saturation point [closed]
In recent exoplanet meeting The Next 40 Years of Exoplanets, it was mentioned a few times that the field/topic is becoming saturated.
In what ways is it becoming saturated, and can you see the effect ...
7
votes
3answers
43 views
Is a rogue 'exoplanet' classed as a exoplanet?
Given that the term planet strictly (according to the IAU) refers to a body around the sun, rogue planets can't be called that, so I assume they must be called rogue exoplanets?
But do they even ...
10
votes
1answer
117 views
How many earth-sized planets have been discovered outside the solar system?
How many earth-sized planets have been discovered outside our solar system? Is there a combined registry of them anywhere? Where might I look for more information?
13
votes
3answers
133 views
What is the probability that a star of a given spectral type will have planets?
There is a lot of new data from the various extrasolar planet projects including NASA's Kepler mission on extra-solar planets. Based on our current data what is the probability that a star of each of ...
