All Questions
Tagged with exoplanet or exoplanets
122 questions
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Is there an equation that can estimate chances of alien life in the universe?
Seeing how infinite the universe appears and out of all of those stars, planets, galaxies, there must be other life forms. Mathematically, the odds are very good. Is there a mathematical equation to ...
CommunityBot
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3
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If you decreased the mass of a planet, but kept the mass of the atmosphere the same, would the air density decrease?
So, I know that atmospheric pressure is a result of both the atmospheric mass and the force of gravity acting on it. If you were to decrease a planet's gravity, but keep the atmospheric mass the same, ...
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Is it possible, by monitoring the brightness of stars, to find a “copy of the Earth + Moon” near them?
More than a dozen Earth-like planets have been discovered around nearby stars based on observations of changes in the brightness of their sun as they pass across its disk (transit events). If an Earth-...
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What is a simple way to estimate $σ_{RV}$ assuming photon noise in radial velocity measurements?
Hello there i have been trying to figure out what is wanted in the question "Simple way to estimate σ_RV assuming photon noise" for a presentation. But i can not seems to find much, but i ...
- 213k
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Would ocean tides on the moon of a gas giant really be kilometers high?
I was reading an article on exomoon habitability constrained by illumination and tidal heating. The article imagines an Earth-like exomoon around Jupiter-like host planet. That got me thinking about ...
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Are there laws of creation for biological life? [closed]
I am no scientist, but I do love science as well as the unknown. Are there laws of creation for biological life? Would it be safe to assume that our bodies are made up from things that came directly ...
- 213k
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Calculating the eccentricity of an exoplanet
I'm wondering how to calculate the eccentricity of an exoplanet by its radial velocity vs. phase graph. To clarify my question I will take an exoplanet called WASP-14b 2 as an example (http://...
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SETI: Are there holes in the EM spectrum that are quiet enough to communicate at decently large distances?
So this is a variant of this other question.
I know stars are big, they radiate a lotta energy, they have spectral lines. But how dense are these spectral lines and is there a noise floor at ...
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Is there a way to calculate/estimate the orbital period of an exoplanet from only one transit detection?
I understand that multiple transit detections of an exoplanet are almost always used to derive its period, but is there a way to do it with only one transit detection? As in, with only one available ...
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Is this scientifically useful exoplanet transit data? [closed]
For a physics project, I am trying to derive properties of exoplanets through their transit light curve. I tried to get the data myself, on the known exoplanet Qatar-6b.
My Equipment:
8" Newt. ...
- 136k
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Where can I find datasets for all confirmed exoplanets, terrestrial exoplanets, and Super-Earth exoplanets?
"The NASA Exoplanet Archive" (https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/) implies that there are 5,197 confirmed exoplanets. The "5,197 Confirmed Planets 11/02/2022" link leads to ...
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How does rogue planet PSO J318.5-22 stay 800ºC?
According to this article, the rogue planet (meaning a planet which does not orbit a star) PSO J318.5-22 has a surface temperature of 800ºC and weather that features molten iron rain. Without a star ...
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Winds or waves in specific conditions?
Winds are mainly produced by differences in temperature of the atmosphere and waves are mainly produced by winds.
However, could a rogue planet (without orbiting any star and with a cold core so no ...
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How to obtain exoplanets transmission spectra from JWST's NIRISS data of WASP96?
I was having a look at JWST's NIRISS data of WASP96 (specifically at the x1dints fits file which should be already calibrated). From this, I would like to obtain a result in a fashion similar to the ...
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Mean distance of objects of specific size in a given volume of space - visualization of planetary systems in the universe
This has been answered in this forum before in some ways I realize, but I have a rusty ability in calculus so was unable to make use of formulas!. Would love the help! I have been talking to my 11 ...
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Can hot planets host water?
Boiling point of water increases with pressure. If so, can a planet with the right atmospheric pressure contain oceans (made of water) irrespective of its temperature?
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Does every Goldilocks planet in various solar systems inevitably have massive amounts of concentrated $\rm H_2O$ meteors?
I’ve always been fascinated with the Anthropic Principle. Our universe seems to have our Chemical, biological, and physical properties/laws designed to favor the existence of life. Although the human ...
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Is the transit technique for exoplanet detections part of the "Wide-Field Precision Photometry Revolution"?
In a exoplanet focused lecture I was informed that the two main techniques for the detection of exoplanets were: radial velocity (VR) and transit. These were very briefly explained to us.
When ...
rob♦
- 94.2k
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Are there planets orbiting something else than a star?
Exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star different from our Sun.
Are there any planets (that we know of) which orbit something else? (Like different giant planet or black hole or maybe neutron star.)
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Doubt regarding the positioning of starshade in new world's mission of Nasa
The new worlds mission of NASA has an occulter with the telescope, Why did they place the occulter at a distance instead of attaching it to the telescope such that there is a hole as big as the size ...
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In a two-body problem, is the argument of periapse the same for both bodies in orbit?
I'm trying to find the argument of periapse $\omega$ for a certain planet which has been studied with imaging, spectroscopy and radial velocity. In the literature I've only been able to find the ...
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How would I see if there is a transit in this light curve?
I am trying to detect if some binary star systems have exoplanets orbiting them. I've been completing this project for many weeks now, and have managed to write some code that will plot light curves ...
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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? I.e....
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What would be the color of a deep, pure and vast liquid $\rm CO_2$ ocean if viewed from space (ignoring the atmosphere's influence)?
So far I had no luck trying to find the visible absorption spectrum of $\rm CO_2$ anywhere, all I get is the far infrared absorption spectrum and stuff like that.
If you just search "what color ...
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Lift and drag coefficients on other planets
The question I'm trying to answer seemed simple: how hard would it be to fly on a planet with lower gravity but also thinner atmosphere compared to Earth. If the answer could hint me at how much ...
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How close would Earth have to be for us to detect it was habitable, and then inhabited?
Given our current technology (or technology that is near implementation), how close would a clone of our Solar System (and so also Earth) have to be to us in order to detect that the cloned Earth was ...
- 213k
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Is drinking water an important feature for finding habitable exoplanets? Has it been found?
We need drinking water to live on other planets. Has drinking water been found on other exoplanets? Is drinking water an important feature for finding habitable exoplanets?
I want to (self) study in ...
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How can spectroscopy be used to find the composition of exoplanet atmospheres?
How can astronomers use light spectroscopy to measure the composition of different planets when they can't directly image the planet because the star that they are orbiting is so much bigger and ...
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Looking for a formula or model for planetary equilibrium temperature which takes into account the greenhouse effect
For a project I'm working on, I have made a bunch of hypothetical random planets orbiting random stars. I have come across the Stefan–Boltzmann law, which works nicely for any planet without an ...
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Is our solar system really that odd?
I have been learning about the solar system from popular science shows. In these shows they suggest that, after having seeing around 2500 other solar systems, astronomers have concluded that our ...
- 136k
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Atmospheres and oceans on lower gravity planets
Using Earth as an example, how much less gravity could the planet exert and still retain its atmosphere and oceans? Or is it a matter of size, mass, magnetosphere, place in the solar system, all of ...
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Did we adapt to Earth or Earth to us? [closed]
I often hear that Earth is a unique planet because it has life and it has its own inhabitance. We also see a proper balance between plants and humans and other animals. Why life is not possible on ...
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Infrared Telescopes and Surface Area
I have been reading a paper on about exoplanets, specifically measuring the temperature of exoplanets using infrared telescopes.
The paper compares exoplanets with neutron stars (NS) remarking that ...
- 213k
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How to track orbit of an exoplanet?
I was wondering if there is an established method to keep track of the orbit of an exoplanet assuming we know $a$ - the semi-major axis of the orbit, $e$ - the eccentricity of the orbit, and $i$ - the ...
- 135k
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Research on exoplanets using available data from TESS
I am a high school student who is proposing research on exoplanets for my junior research project, I have several questions:
I have seen studies where researchers survey star systems and then find ...
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Proxima Centauri radio signal
I have recently seen an article about an unusual radio signal coming from Proxima Centauri region.
I understand there is a debate around the nature of this signal.
My question is related to this ...
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How do Astronomers Measure the Mass of a Planet using Doppler Spectroscopy?
So, I am making an essay explaining planet-hunting techniques. And while I do get how astronomers measure the semi-major axis of a planetary orbit (using Kepler Laws), I don't get how they measure the ...
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Exoplanet surface detail: Limitations on size of space telescope array
How big could an array of space telescopes acting as an interferometer be ?
How big would it have to be to resolve exoplanet surface detail the size of Iceland at a distance of 100 light years ?
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How can we see planets thousands of light years away but don't know if there are more planets in the solar system?
That is basically my question, it arose when I saw an article (here is the scientific paper, which should be free to read) saying two Caltech scientists might have found the 9th planet of the solar ...
- 136k
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Simulation of relativistic probe passing through an external solar system
I recently read about the Breakthrough Initiative to launch "StarShot", a nano-probe that is designed to travel to Alpha Centauri at $0.2c$. One of the challenges to be solved involves the precise ...
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When do planets formed via core accretion in a proto-planetary disk stop gaining mass?
I was just trying to go over some of the contents in my exo planets course and wanted to know that if all the planets that form via core accretion continue to attract all the dust in a proto-planetary ...
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Datasets for calculation of exoplanet properties
I would like to create program for calculation exoplanet properties, but I only found transit dataset from Kepler on NASA website. From light curve I can calculate:
planet radius $r$ from $\frac{r_{...
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Global Circulation Model of tidally locked planets for PC?
Is there some free simple Global Circulation Model that can handle tidally locked planets and can be easily compiled and used on a PC computer? It does not have to be very precise, I am interested ...
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Which planets of our solar system could be discovered from another solar system with present technology?
Recently many exoplanets have been found orbiting nearby stars. Assume there is a civilization with identical technology residing in a nearby (< 100 light years) solar system. Could they discover ...
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Can we know if an exoplanet has a magnetic field?
The recent discovery of the exoplanet Proxima b gave rise to several questions concerning its habitability and its potential to host life. A major concern is the huge amount of radiation coming from ...
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Formation of Life on various planets
Is there any theory that suggests every creature (including bacteria and fungi) in our planet is formed by the atoms of our planet. If that is true, then is it possible that any other organisms will ...
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Why do gas giants have similarly coloured stripes?
After looking at Jupiter and searching 'exoplanets gas giants' on google I found that many had stripes on them. I found that pretty peculiar. So why do they have stripes. I think it has something to ...
- 135k
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Why is relativistic beaming/ Doppler beaming occur at non-relativistic speeds
The reflexive motion of a binary star system causes the host star to occasionally wobble towards and away from an observer on Earth, which gives rise to an effect called relativistic beaming. This is ...
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Can a planemo turn into a star?
I read this question
Why is planet CFBDSIR2149-0403 hot?
and wonder what will happen to this "planemo". Will it attract more mass as it flows around in the gas clouds in space and eventually light ...
- 136k
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On Planets orbiting binary stars
Several years ago a discovery was made of planet orbiting a star of a binary system (two stars orbiting each other). Since binary star systems are plentiful in our galaxy, I presume we will be ...
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