Questions tagged [exoplanets]
Exoplanets (also known as Exosolar or Extrasolar planets) are planets outside the solar system.
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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. ...
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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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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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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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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 ...
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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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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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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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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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 ...
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What orbit does a planet have to have to be a planet? [closed]
Other questions have dealt with where you could find a planet-like object, and what a planet has to consist of to count as a planet. But this question is directed as what orbit or path an object would ...
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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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Finding distance Range for an Exoplanet to be detectable
I have been trying to solve the following problem, I found while reading some Exoplanet detection techniques, namely, radial velocity method and Astrometry.
Problem statement:
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Imagine yourself ...
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Rayleigh Scattering and Red Giants
Rayleigh scattering is responsible for the color of the sky. Consider a planet with an atmospheric composition similar to Earth's but orbiting a red giant. Suppose further that the planet is in the ...
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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 ...
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Why is Mars so cold when it has so much atmospheric $CO_2$?
Mars has 1/10 of Earth's atmosphere but that atmosphere is 95% CO2. Why is Mars so cold when it has so much atmospheric CO2?
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How is global warming distributed with respect to altitude?
Lets assume a sea level temperature increase 2c/3c. Then, what is the temperature increase at 10 km altitude? Temperature increase at 30 km altitude? Temperature increase at 70 km altitude? And ...
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How does TESS focus on bright nearby stars?
How does the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite "focus on" bright nearby stars, in contrast to the Kepler Mission's focus on dim distant stars?
I understand that the fields of view of the two ...
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Doppler method for detecting exoplanets
Why does the Doppler method for detecting exoplanets only give the minimum mass for the exoplanet and not the actual mass?
Is it to do with whether the exoplanet is a face on orbit or a side on ...
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Why does a starshade have to be put so far away from the telescope?
I understand why starshades have the shape they do, but i don't seem to understand why they have to be put so far away from the telescope. Why can't we keep the same apodization function, but just ...
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Sodium sometimes absorbs orange-yellow light, sometimes emits it? Huh?
Usually, we are told that sodium emits orangish-yellowish light, which is why city streetlamps are that color.
Now, I read in New Scientist magazine that exoplanet WASP-96b is bluish because the ...
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Have scientists thought about these two questions? [closed]
I would like to know if our vision bends with the earth or if the earth truly is round. If I look through a strong enough telescope to see around the world, would I be able to see the back of my head? ...
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are alignment of star systems' orbital planes with ours better than random?
It obviously helps our observation of exoplanets if they transit their star from our point-of-view. I would guess that the chances of this alignment are better than if their orbital plane was randomly ...
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