Lecture 10: Extrasolar planets

Further reading

• The article by Ann Finkbeiner, "Planets in chaos" is an excellent summary of the current state of affairs in our (lack of) understanding of planet formation: http://www.nature.com/news/astronomy-planets-in-chaos-1.15480
• Web-sites can at least stay up-to-date, even if they're less readable. A couple of good ones:
  • http://exoplanets.org has a complete up-to-date list of all exoplanets, plus some terrific tools for plotting the data.
  • The Nasa Exoplanet Archive at http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu has lots of similar features
  • NASA now has a site called "PlanetQuest: Exoplanet exploration" at http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/, which has a host of useful information, including a page to search the catalogue of exoplanets in various ways
  • space.com has a list of "The Strangest Alien Planets" at http://www.space.com/159-strangest-alien-planets.html
• The Kepler website is at http://kepler.nasa.gov: they have loads of good pictures and animations, as well as a live counter telling you how many planets they've found!
• The Citizen Science project Planet Hunters is at http://www.planethunters.org; you can help identify transits and find new planet candidates. The site is part of the zooniverse project, which has many participatory projects, from identifying galaxies, to exploring features on the Moon.
• Check out http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/science/space/keplers-tally-of-planets.html
• NASA maintains an "Upcoming Planetary Launches and Events" page at http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/upcoming.html

Source for images

• Light house and firefly: from PlanetQuest "Search for another Earth" powerpoint presentation http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/frequentImages.cfm
• Astrometric displacement due to Jupiter: Planet Quest: Science - Finding planets http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/science/finding_planets.cfm
• Iodine cell: from The Anglo-Australian Planet Search, http://www.aao.gov.au/local/www/cgt/planet/aat.html
• Example spectrum through iodine cell: from TLS Tautenburg: Coude Echelle Spectrograph, http://www.tls-tautenburg.de/coude/echelle_spectrograph.html
• Echelle spectrum: from "The Lowest Mass Exoplanet: 6 - 8 Earth-Masses" http://exoplanets.org/gl876_web/gl876_graphics.html
• 51 Pegasi figures: from Niel Brandt, Astro 1, http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/niel/astro1/slideshows/class44/slides-44.html
• Artist's impression of 51 Peg b: from "20 Intriguing Exoplanets" https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/20-intriguing-exoplanets
• 47 Ursa Majoris: artist's impression by John Whatmough, from Astronomy Picture of the Day 1997 October 5, http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap971005.html; 70 Virginis, image by Walter Myers, http://www.arcadiastreet.com/cgvistas/exo_020.htm
• Orbit geometry: from "The Search for and Discovery of Extra-Solar Planets" by Richard Larson, http://www.astro.washington.edu/larson/Astro150b/Lectures/ExtraSolarPlanets/xsp.html
• Transit graph: from Kepler animations http://kepler.nasa.gov/multimedia/animations/?ImageID=38
• Venus transit: photo by David Cortner, from Astronomy Picture of the Day 2004 June 23, http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap040623.html
• Quadruple Saturn moon transit: from https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/hst_img_20090317.html
• Transit light curve: from "Planets orbiting around other stars" by Michael Richmond, http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys230/lectures/planets/planets.html
• All Kepler images are from http://kepler.nasa.gov
• HAT-P-7b light curve: from Borucki et al, 2009, "Kepler's Optical Phase Curve of the Exoplanet HAT-P-7b", http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009Sci...325..709B; animation from http://kepler.nasa.gov/multimedia/animations/
• Kepler results: from powerpoint presentation by Bill Borucki http://kepler.nasa.gov/news/nasakeplernews/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=98
• Kepler 34-b: from http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2012-02
• Kepler-453: from "Discovery of Tenth Tatooine-like Circumbinary Planet" http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/Kepler453b/
• Kepler's discoveries: from "Exploring Exoplanet Populations with NASA's Kepler Mission" by Natalie M. Batalha, https://arxiv.org/abs/1409.1904
• Planet in quadruple star system: from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121015150031.htm
• Exoplanets bouncing in a 250AU binary: from http://www.nickolas1.com/
• Debris disks from Spitzer: from http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/2664-ssc2007-05a-Where-Planets-Take-up-Residence
• Habitable zone: from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exoplanets
• Kepler 452b: from https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-kepler-mission-discovers-bigger-older-cousin-to-earth
• Kepler habitable zone planets: from https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/ames/kepler/kepler-habitable-zone-planets
• Proxima Centauri planet: from http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1629/?lang
• TRAPPIST-1 planets: from https://www.eso.org/public/australia/news/eso1706/ and https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-telescope-reveals-largest-batch-of-earth-size-habitable-zone-planets-around
• Intelligent life: from Niel Brandt http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/niel/astro1/slideshows/class44/slides-44.html
• Kepler K2 mission: from http://keplerscience.arc.nasa.gov/K2/MissionConcept.shtml and http://kepler.nasa.gov/news/nasakeplernews/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=341
• Exoplanet populations: from https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/ames/kepler/exoplanet-populations
• Circumbinary planet: from http://www.bis-space.com/2012/08/29/6722/circumbinary-planets-discovered
• S-type and P-type orbits: from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitability_of_binary_star_systems
• Exoplanet densities: from https://online.science.psu.edu/astro140_fawd001/node/11791
• Tightly packed solar system: from http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2016/1031-dynamics-of-exoplanet-systems.html
• Planetary migration: from http://www.astronomycast.com/2013/05/ep-301-planetary-migration/
• Spiral accretion streams: from http://www.pd.infn.it/~mbarbier/research/esp/
• Planetary migration movie: from Pawel Artymowicz: Planetary systems and their changing theories, http://www.astro.su.se/~pawel/planets/movies.html
• Stopping orbital migration: from "Stars Don't Obliterate Their Planets (Very Often)" http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-190
• Escape velocity for solar system planets: from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_atmosphere
• HD209458b: from The extrasolar planet HD 209458 b http://www2.iap.fr/exoplanetes/images_hd209458_en.html
• Exoplanet atmospheres: from "Hubble Traces Subtle Signals of Water on Hazy Worlds",https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-traces-subtle-signals-of-water-on-hazy-worlds
• Atmosphere around GJ1132b: from http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39521344
• TESS mission: from https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-s-tess-mission-cleared-for-next-development-phase
• JWST: from https://www.newscientist.com/article/2113843-hubble-rounds-up-the-first-worlds-well-check-for-alien-life/

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Last updated 7 December 2017