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תוכן מסופק על ידי Explorer. כל תוכן הפודקאסטים כולל פרקים, גרפיקה ותיאורי פודקאסטים מועלים ומסופקים ישירות על ידי Explorer או שותף פלטפורמת הפודקאסט שלו. אם אתה מאמין שמישהו משתמש ביצירה שלך המוגנת בזכויות יוצרים ללא רשותך, אתה יכול לעקוב אחר התהליך המתואר כאן https://he.player.fm/legal.
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E24 # What's Out There? The Exoplanet Sky So Far

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Manage episode 286643943 series 2884538
תוכן מסופק על ידי Explorer. כל תוכן הפודקאסטים כולל פרקים, גרפיקה ותיאורי פודקאסטים מועלים ומסופקים ישירות על ידי Explorer או שותף פלטפורמת הפודקאסט שלו. אם אתה מאמין שמישהו משתמש ביצירה שלך המוגנת בזכויות יוצרים ללא רשותך, אתה יכול לעקוב אחר התהליך המתואר כאן https://he.player.fm/legal.

Since a giant planet in a scorching orbit captured public attention in 1995, a sky full of strange and exotic exoplanets – planets orbiting other stars – has only grown richer in variety and detail.

Hot Jupiters, mini-Neptunes, “super-Earths,” planets with two or three suns in their skies, rocky planets drowned in global oceans of lava, planets where it might rain glass – these make up just a short list of oddities among more than 4,300 confirmed so far in our Milky Way galaxy.

And we’ve only scratched the surface. The galaxy likely holds trillions

The search for life beyond Earth has grown up alongside the search for distant worlds. Computer simulations of possible life-bearing planets look more and more like the real thing. Deeper understanding of possible habitable worlds in our own solar system – Mars, Jupiter’s moon Europa, Saturn’s Enceladus – informs the hunt for life among the stars.

Planetary scientists, exoplanet hunters, and astrobiologists, who seek to understand the origins and requirements of life, have begun to join forces. On many fronts, NASA, with help from its academic and international partners, is leading the charge.

“I never fail to be thrilled by just the energy and innovation and creativity of the exoplanet community,” said Doug Hudgins, program scientist for NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program at NASA headquarters in Washington. “One of the things that makes the field as compelling as it is, is that it’s hugely important to people’s worldview, where we are as human beings. Are we alone? It’s directly addressing a fundamental question of humankind.”

Exoplanet debut: a 'hot Jupiter'

Though not the first exoplanet ever found, 51 Pegasi b was the first detected in orbit around a Sun-like star. The planet ignited international excitement when it was confirmed in 1995, ushering in a new era of discovery.

A gas giant with about half the heft, or “mass,” of our own Jupiter, 51 Peg orbits its star so tightly that a year – once around the star – takes only four days.

That keeps 51 Peg infernally hot; life on this planet is out of the question. But 51 Peg showed that exoplanets could be detected by the “wobble” method, or radial velocity – tracking by telescope the gravitational jiggles a planet causes its star to make, tugging it first one way, then another.

This method resulted in dozens, then hundreds of exoplanet discoveries, and is still an important detection method. But since 2009, it’s been eclipsed by the search for shadows.

Also called the “transit” method, this approach involves waiting for a planet to cast a shadow as it crosses (or transits) the face of its star. It’s an extremely faint shadow – a dip in the star’s light that typically amounts to less than 1%.

Credit: NASA

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47 פרקים

Artwork
iconשתפו
 
Manage episode 286643943 series 2884538
תוכן מסופק על ידי Explorer. כל תוכן הפודקאסטים כולל פרקים, גרפיקה ותיאורי פודקאסטים מועלים ומסופקים ישירות על ידי Explorer או שותף פלטפורמת הפודקאסט שלו. אם אתה מאמין שמישהו משתמש ביצירה שלך המוגנת בזכויות יוצרים ללא רשותך, אתה יכול לעקוב אחר התהליך המתואר כאן https://he.player.fm/legal.

Since a giant planet in a scorching orbit captured public attention in 1995, a sky full of strange and exotic exoplanets – planets orbiting other stars – has only grown richer in variety and detail.

Hot Jupiters, mini-Neptunes, “super-Earths,” planets with two or three suns in their skies, rocky planets drowned in global oceans of lava, planets where it might rain glass – these make up just a short list of oddities among more than 4,300 confirmed so far in our Milky Way galaxy.

And we’ve only scratched the surface. The galaxy likely holds trillions

The search for life beyond Earth has grown up alongside the search for distant worlds. Computer simulations of possible life-bearing planets look more and more like the real thing. Deeper understanding of possible habitable worlds in our own solar system – Mars, Jupiter’s moon Europa, Saturn’s Enceladus – informs the hunt for life among the stars.

Planetary scientists, exoplanet hunters, and astrobiologists, who seek to understand the origins and requirements of life, have begun to join forces. On many fronts, NASA, with help from its academic and international partners, is leading the charge.

“I never fail to be thrilled by just the energy and innovation and creativity of the exoplanet community,” said Doug Hudgins, program scientist for NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program at NASA headquarters in Washington. “One of the things that makes the field as compelling as it is, is that it’s hugely important to people’s worldview, where we are as human beings. Are we alone? It’s directly addressing a fundamental question of humankind.”

Exoplanet debut: a 'hot Jupiter'

Though not the first exoplanet ever found, 51 Pegasi b was the first detected in orbit around a Sun-like star. The planet ignited international excitement when it was confirmed in 1995, ushering in a new era of discovery.

A gas giant with about half the heft, or “mass,” of our own Jupiter, 51 Peg orbits its star so tightly that a year – once around the star – takes only four days.

That keeps 51 Peg infernally hot; life on this planet is out of the question. But 51 Peg showed that exoplanets could be detected by the “wobble” method, or radial velocity – tracking by telescope the gravitational jiggles a planet causes its star to make, tugging it first one way, then another.

This method resulted in dozens, then hundreds of exoplanet discoveries, and is still an important detection method. But since 2009, it’s been eclipsed by the search for shadows.

Also called the “transit” method, this approach involves waiting for a planet to cast a shadow as it crosses (or transits) the face of its star. It’s an extremely faint shadow – a dip in the star’s light that typically amounts to less than 1%.

Credit: NASA

  continue reading

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