Notes

Slide Show

Outline

1	Planets
2	Nobody Knows!
3	Our Solar System:
4	Our Galaxy:
5	Extrasolar Planets: planets outside of our solar system In 1995 the first extrasolar planets were discovered.
6	So what is a planet?
7	What took so long? Light from the star washes out the planet. Like trying to see a mosquito swarming around a street light from a thousand miles away on a foggy night.
8	How do planets form?
9	Where do we look for other planets? Stars within about 200 light years.
10	The orbit of another planet around its star compared to the orbit of Earth around our star(the sun).
11	The type of planets that can currently be detected
12	How do we find these other planets? Astronomers have developed a variety of detection methods.
13	Doppler shift:
14	Transit Photometry
15	How many have been found? 70 extrasolar planets have been found as of December, 2001. More are being discovered about every month! On November 28, 2001, there was an announcement that the first extrasolar planetary atmosphere has been found. This is the atmosphere of a large planet orbiting a star known as HD209458.
16	Light from star absorbed by atmosphere of planet
17	Transit Photometry
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19	HD 209458 in the sky
20	What’s next? Find an atmosphere with oxygen and water?
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22	Web Sites for Further Information: General Extrasolar Planet information http://exoplanets.org/