All Questions
Tagged with exoplanets exoplanets or
122 questions
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If a hot Jupiter was not tidally locked, then are there any specific cases where its wind speeds would be milder than those found on Jupiter?
If a hot Jupiter was not tidally locked, are there any specific cases where its wind speeds would be milder than those found on Jupiter?
After controlling for the age of the hot Jupiter, of course. ...
- 3,662
5
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1
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135
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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 ...
- 5,169
7
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1
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332
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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 has ...
- 6,987
14
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2
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691
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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 ...
- 2,350
3
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1
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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?
- 6,082
4
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1
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45
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Contents page of Exoplanets book
I can't find an online contents page for the book Exoplanets, edited by Sara Seager, University of Arizona Press, 2011.
Can you point to such a page, or say what the contents page says?
Qurq
14
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2
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2k
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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 ...
- 3,662
4
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2
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Is it easier to learn more about the seasonal changes in an exoplanet's atmosphere when the exoplanet orbits a binary star system?
From a recent ScienceDaily article, we have this...
Scientists detected the new planet in the Kepler-16 system, a pair of
orbiting stars that eclipse each other from our vantage point on
Earth. When ...
- 3,662
7
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0
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Are there certain alignments in planetary orbits that create interesting effects in the moons or planets? [closed]
We have some interesting examples such as Mercury's perihelion
The planet Mercury is especially susceptible to Jupiter's influence
because of a small celestial coincidence: Mercury's perihelion, ...
- 3,662
3
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2
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218
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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 ...
- 3,662
2
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How can we be sure that liquid iron/titanium droplets can form around particulates on hot Jupiters - just as they do on Earth and Venus?
I know that we have some solar system analogs. But is there a limit to it?
- 3,662
3
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Is CO2 really a potent greenhouse gas for planets around M dwarfs?
The thing with global warming is that it absorbs infrared (IR) radiation from the planet and reradiates much of it back to the planet (whereas the Sun's peak flux is in the visible region, that is ...
- 3,662
4
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1
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94
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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 ...
- 3,662
9
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3
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5k
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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 ...
- 5,091
8
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5
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221
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Exoplanet detection via space-based parasol
I remember from watching Cosmos years ago, Carl Sagan suggested an interesting hypothetical method for directly seeing exoplanets. He proposed that in the 'future' we could launch a satellite designed ...
- 727
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2
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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 ...
- 235
10
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138
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Planets capable of life: dead or still alive?
There are some planets that scientists speculate may be capable of supporting life. However, these planets are hundreds of light years away. How can we be sure they are still capable of supporting ...
grassman
8
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3
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359
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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 ...
- 6,987
11
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1
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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?
- 779
16
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3
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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 ...
- 6,467
26
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4
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How do the “hot Jupiter” planets get so close to their host star?
Many of the extrasolar planets to date are Jovian sized planets that orbit very very close to their parent star. Traditional planetary formation models say that it is extremely unlikely (if not ...
- 6,467
5
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2
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456
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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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