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When were the first planets around other Sun-like stars discovered |
a decade ago |
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how many other planetary systems have been discovered to date? |
a thousand |
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Which of the following methods has led to the most discoveries of massive planets orbiting near their parent stars? |
detecting the gravitational effect of an orbiting planet by looking for the Doppler shifts in the star’s spectrum |
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Which of the following methods has not yet detected planets around other stars? |
detection of reflected light by the planet |
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Most of the planets discovered around other stars |
are more massive than Earth and orbit very close to the star. |
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How much brighter is a Sun-like star than the reflected light from a planet orbiting around it? |
a billion times brighter |
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What is astrometry? |
measuring the positions of stars on the sky |
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By itself, the Doppler technique provides a measure of a planet’s |
minimum mass, orbital radius, orbital eccentricity |
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Planets detected via the Doppler technique have been mostly |
Jupiter-mass, in very close orbits. |
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Current techniques can measure stellar motion to less than |
walking speed. |
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A planet’s density can be measured by combining |
Doppler and transit observations. |
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The composition of a planet can be determined by |
the Doppler technique. astrometric measurements. transit observations. spectra. |
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The size and shape of a planet’s orbit can be determined by |
the Doppler technique. |
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The astrometric technique of planet detection works best for |
massive planets around nearby stars |
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The transit method of planet detection works best for |
big planets in edge-on orbits around small stars. |
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The reason that most extrasolar planets are found close to their parent stars is |
the amount and frequency of the star’s motion are both higher. |
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The Doppler technique only provides a measure of the minimum mass of a planet because |
only the motion of star toward the observer is measured, not the full motion. |
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Which planet can we see occasionally transit across the face of the Sun? |
Mercury |
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) Which planet search technique is currently best suited to finding Earth-like planets? |
transit |
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What are the two main differences between extrasolar planetary systems discovered to date and our Solar System? |
extrasolar planet orbits tend to be closer and more eccentric than in our Solar System |
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A planet is detected via the Doppler technique. The velocity change of the star is a measure of |
the planet’s mass and orbital distance |
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A planet is detected via the Doppler technique. The repeating pattern of the stellar motion tells us |
the orbital period of the planet |
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A planet is detected via the Doppler technique. The shape of the periodic velocity pattern tells us |
the orbital eccentricity of the planet. |
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The depth of the dip in a star’s brightness due to the transit of a planet depends most directly on |
the planet’s size. |
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Why are many of the newly detected extrasolar planets called "hot Jupiters"? |
Their masses are similar to Jupiter but they are very close to the central star and therefore hot. |
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The composition of a planet’s atmosphere be measured during a transit by analyzing |
the excess absorption of starlight at specific wavelengths. |
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What do models suggest make up the clouds on "hot Jupiters"? |
rock dust |
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How do we think the "hot Jupiters" around other stars were formed? |
They formed as gas giants beyond the frost line and then migrated inwards. |
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What would happen to the planets in a solar system where the central star did not have a strong wind? |
The gas in the solar nebula would create a drag on the planets and their orbits would migrate inwards. |
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Which of the following is a consequence of the discovery of hot Jupiters for the nebular theory of solar system formation? |
It has been modified to allow for planets to migrate inwards or outwards due to gravitational interactions. |
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Which of the following is a consequence of the discovery of hot Jupiters for understanding our own Solar System |
It shows that we do not fully understand the formation of our Solar System |
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Viewed from afar, the transit of Earth would cause the Sun’s brightness to dim by approximately one part in |
10,000. |
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If every star had an Earth-like planet in an Earth-like orbit, how many could be detected by a transit? |
1 in 200 |
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