Chapter 6

Outer, Dwarf and Exoplanets

R e q u ire d W o r k:
c D - H O m ew o r k
W o r k bo o k : Page s 41 -50
O u te r Pl ane t Te st (Te ac he r
Pr o vid e d )
Te ac h e r O ptio ns:
O u te r pl ane t R epo r t

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 layer is composed of haze and ice crystals.
Ju pit er These clouds float over the lower layers
much as foam floats on top of Earth’s
oceans. It acts as a colorful, exposed skin
over the gaseous planet.

On Jupiter, the temperature averages

-230 degrees Fahrenheit. The lower levels of
its atmospheres have higher temperatures
and pressures. Where the pressures reach 10
times that of Earth’s atmosphere, the
temperature averages 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
This would be the only area where life, of
the airborne type, would have a chance to
exist in or on the planet. When descending
to the core temperatures can reach 43,000
degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than the surface
of the sun. Jupiter actually sends out more
Photo courtesy NASA
heat into space than it receives from the
In a world that has storms larger than Sun!
our planet, Jupiter is large enough to contain
1,000 earths. It has a diameter 1/10 the size Although the planet resembles a
of the sun. Gravity, from such mass, pulls in giant gas ball, this may not be an accurate
countless objects that fly too near to it. It description. Below the gas clouds, pressures
melts moons with it electro-magnetic are so great that the planet is an ocean of
powers. One of the five originally hot, liquid hydrogen. Deeper, the hydrogen
recognized planets, it is the fifth planet from resembles liquid metal. In the center there is
the Sun. It has an orbit that is equal, in possibly an iron and rock core that is the
completion time, to 12 earth years. size of 20 to 30 Earths, with a density of
Venus, Mars and Earth combined. At its’
The “king” of our gas planets, core, it is as much as 6 times hotter than the
Jupiter is the heaviest of all the solar planets. surface of the Sun.
It has 2.4 times the gravity of earth. Gigantic
in size and closest to the Sun’s chemical The “bow shock” of Jupiter resists
composition, its 86% hydrogen and about our Sun’s solar winds up to 4,660,000 miles
14% helium with less than 1% other gases, from Jupiter’s gaseous surface. Its’ magnetic
including methane, ammonia, phosphine, field is 14 times stronger than that of earth
water, acetylene, ethane, germanium and which makes it the strongest bow shock in
carbon monoxide. Shouldn’t this planet have the solar system.
what it takes to become a star? It is
immense, but it would have to be eighty Jupiter is one of four ringed planets.
times larger to begin the fusion process. The ring, not visible from Earth was spotted
during a Voyager 1 fly by many years ago.
Jupiter has layers of clouds. The top Made up of dust, it is so faint that astronauts

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standing on one of its moons would not be course, of the Sun.
able to see it. The dust may come from
ejected materials entering into its’ space
from the moon - Io’s volcanoes. The rings
are (orange in color) may be leftover debris D id y o u k n o w ?
from asteroids hitting the local moons.
During the 1990s, astronomers
Jupiter has some of the most witnessed an historic event on Jupiter. A
interesting moons in our solar system. The passing comet, Shoemaker – Levy 9, came
biggest are called Io, Ganymede, Europa, too close to the planet. Jupiter caught it with
and Callisto. When Galileo first saw the its powerful gravity and broke it into pieces.
planet he thought that he saw little stars The comet was pulled further into its
around it. Those “stars” turned out to be influence and finally collided with the giant.
some of Jupiter’s moons and can be seen It was the first witnessing of this type of
with binoculars on a clear, dark night. (In collision.
the Moons chapter you will learn more One piece made a bruise mark on
about these fascinating worlds). Jupiter the size of our planet. It took over
one Earth year for all traces of the impact to
The major feature on the giant planet is disappear. It served as a warning sign to
the Great Red Spot, which has been visible many on Earth. It also posed questions:
for hundreds of years. This spot is actually a Should we be watching the skies for danger?
storm that turns counter clockwise. It How many times has Jupiter saved Earth?
completes a full rotation every 12 Earth
days. The red color is probably from
churned - up phosphorus. This storm is
bigger than the circumference of two of our
Earths combined.

Days on Jupiter are different than days

on Earth. One would suspect that the Sa tu r n
“Jovian” days would be quite long. After
all, it is a huge planet and it must take much
time to turn all the way around. However, its
day is only 9 Earth hours and 55 ½ minutes
for a complete rotation at the equator. That
makes it the fastest rotating planet in the
solar system. This rapid spin produces bands
of atmosphere and actually flattens out the
poles. The equatorial diameter is 89,015
miles. The north to south diameter is only
84,208 miles.

Jupiter is a noisy planet. It emits

Courtesy NASA
more natural noise than any other object in
our solar system, with the exception of
When viewed through a telescope,
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Saturn stands out like a beautiful jewel. It equator. Because of this, it tends to flatten at
resembles a pearl surrounded by a gold ring, the poles, much like Jupiter. The equatorial
resting on black velvet. With the power of radius is 37,488 miles and the polar radius is
the telescope, you see tiny specks 33,555 miles.
shimmering around it. Those are the moons
of Saturn. It very well may be one of the Although Saturn is hundreds of
most beautiful sights in our solar system. millions of miles away, Jupiter throws off
Saturn’s orbital path around the Sun by as
Saturn is the second largest of our much as 10,000,000,000 miles. The distance
system’s planets. Approximately nine times from Jupiter to Saturn is almost the same as
the size of Earth, the planet is composed of Jupiter to the Sun.
hydrogen, helium, methane and ammonia.
This planetary jewel is nine times
With powerful telescopes one can farther away from the Sun than the Earth. A
see more planet and ring definition. Belts truly cold place for the planet and its moons,
and shades appear. The “ring” is actually the average temperature on the moons and
“rings.” The planet surface looks banded. the rings is -330 degrees Fahrenheit.

Saturn has 61 moons, the largest

moon, called Titan, and has some things in
D id y o u k n o w ? common with our planet. Both have an
atmosphere, rain, snow and accumulations
If you could find an ocean big enough of liquid on the ground. Other major moons
and set Saturn on it, Saturn would float! It include: Iapetus, Mimas, Dione, Tethys,
has low enough density for its size to make Enceladus, and Rhea. At least 19 moons
that possible. have been spotted to date. Several of the
smaller moons are probably asteroids caught
by gravity while passing by. The greater the
Until a probe came near to the planet distance from Saturn, the bigger the moons.
it was not known that there were actually
3,000 ringlets around the planet. The width The planet actually emits more heat
of the ring bands add up to more than 30,000 from its interior than it receives from the
miles. But the thickness of them measures Sun. It receives only 1% of the Sun
less than 500 feet! produced heat that Earth receives.

The interior is thought to be much Saturn is named after Saturnus, God

like that of Jupiter. It seems to have a liquid of Agriculture. The rings of Saturn were not
hydrogen interior, with liquid metal discovered until 1659 when astronomer
characteristics near its core. A small iron Christian Huygens identified them. Galileo
core probably exists. thought that Saturn was composed of three
stars in very close proximity to each other.
Even though the planet’s size is 815
times that of Earth, its mass is only 95.2 The rings were thought to be solid
times more. It has a rapid rotation of once discs until 1895, when astronomers
every 10 Earth hours and 14 minutes at the theorized that solid rings could not hold

43
together, that close to a planet. Until just a
few years ago, Saturn was thought to be the Lightning has been detected in the
only ringed planet; now it has three atmosphere of Saturn.
companions. This discovery was made by
the spacecraft Voyager I which found two
rings around Jupiter and five around Uranus.
Neptune also has rings.

The rings are composed of objects as

small as tiny icy particles, clear ice chunks U r an u s
resembling midsized asteroids. The ice
contains dirt contaminants. There are
theories about where the rings originated.
One is that a comet may have destroyed one
of the moons eons ago, and that the resulting
rubble formed the rings. Another is that two
of Saturn’s original moons may have
collided with each other repeatedly and left
the resulting devastation to orbit the mother
planet. It is estimated that the rings will
eventually fall onto Saturn; this may take
billions of years.

Each major ring structure has a

name. The outer ring is known as Ring “A”. Courtesy NASA
The gap between the rings is known as the
Cassini Division. The closest visible ring
structure is the “C” Ring. The seventh planet from the Sun,
located between Saturn and Neptune,
Saturn’s belts, like those of Jupiter, Uranus was accidentally discovered in 1781,
emit radio waves. Its magnetic fields are by Sir William Herschel of Great Britain.
much weaker than can be judged by it size. The original name was Georgium Sidus, in
At cloud tops, the belts are weaker than honor of the king George III of England.
those found on the Earth. However, they do The Uranus name was adopted in the late
create a bow shock that resists solar winds. 1800s.

The atmosphere appears to be Uranus is invisible to us with

stormy, with white oval shapes that unaided eye. It appears blue/green when
resemble storms found on Jupiter. There is a seen up close. Because of its diffuse
thin haze surrounding the upper atmosphere. covering, it is difficult figure out its rotation
Saturn’s wind speed, up to four times from afar. Voyager 2 made a rotational
stronger than that of Jupiter’s wind speeds observation of the planet in 1986 and found
range up to 1,100 miles per hour at the different parts turning at different speeds.
equatorial area, but they drop to nearly zero The day is 14 Earth hours long at higher and
at the higher and lower latitudes. lower latitudes on the planet, while it is 17

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hours long around its middle. and 42 years more light, which alternates at
each polar season.
No colorful cloud bands surround
this planet. A covering fog of methane gas Uranus is 14.5 times greater in mass
crystals hide what is underneath. than Earth. Its volume is 67 times larger
Occasionally some clouds tower above the than our planet, its gravity is little more than
layers below. Other than this there are no ours. It is not a dense planet.
real definable features.
The planet has 27 moons that have
The core of Uranus is rocky and is been discovered so far. Ten were discovered
about the same size as that of our Earth. This by Voyager II. Fifteen of them orbit around
core is covered by a great mass of icy slush the equator in an east - west direction. The
mix of liquid methane and water. Over this other two move from west to east at a higher
layer is an atmosphere of 85% hydrogen and angle from the equator. Two of the moons
15% helium that is pressurized and has a are irregularly shaped.
soupy quality. On top is a smog blanket of
methane. N eptu n e

Uranus has a rotational axis (angle

of the spin.) that is quite odd. It turns almost
completely sideways instead of in an
east/west movement. It would be as if
Earth’s rotation was from the north to the
south. Why the planet is rotating that way is
speculative. One theory suggests that it
collided with something so big that it was
knocked sideways. This motion gives
Uranus the appearance of “rolling” rather
These two pictures taken by the Hubble
than spinning.
Telescope, allows you to see the rotation
of Neptune.
Uranus has a total of nine skimpy
Courtesy NASA
rings. Five were discovered in 1977; the rest
were found by Voyager 2. Narrow and
From Neptune, Earth looks like
black, there seems to be little dust in them.
another faint star in the far reaches of space.
They are filled with ice blocks about the size
During daylight hours the glare of the Sun
of refrigerators.
obscures, (covers from us), from our view of
the planet.
The diameter of Uranus is 31,771
miles at the equator. It is typically about
When sunlight reaches Neptune it
1.78 billion miles from the Sun. It takes
shines with 1/400th of the power shining on
about 84 years for it to make one orbit
Earth. It is 30 times farther away than the
around the Sun. The far northern and
Sun is to us. The temperature is low, is only
southern regions have the same summer and
70 degrees above absolute zero.
winter tendencies as does our own planet.
Therefore, 42 years there is more darkness
Neptune is nearly 30 times the
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distance from the Sun as is our Earth. It is so covering the lower layers of the planet. The
far away from us that it was not discovered lower levels of the atmosphere appear to be
until 1846 by the use of mathematical composed of hydrogen sulfide. Occasionally
calculations by French astronomer Urbain a white methane cloud can be seen zooming
Leverrier. From these calculations, German above the blue layer. Winds moving these
astronomer Johann Galle spotted the planet clouds have been clocked at speeds of up to
that same year. 700 miles per hour in the upper atmosphere.

The big blue planet is so far away Its 30,700 mile equatorial diameter
from the Sun, with an orbit so large, that 1 makes it a virtual tie for third in size with
Neptunian year is equal to 165 Earth years. Uranus. It is 72 times larger than Earth but
During that time Neptune travels only has 17 times the mass of our planet.
2,793,100,000 miles.
Neptune is also known as a “gas
Neptune has 13 moons, two of which planet”. Although it may have a solid core
can be seen by our most powerful of rock and metal, perhaps more substantial
telescopes. The rest were discovered by than the other gas planets, its magnetic poles
Voyager 2 in 1989. The largest has been are tilted 50 degrees from the rotation axis.
named Triton. In 1989 Voyager 2 spacecraft
took extraordinary pictures of Neptune, The layer below the methane clouds
providing new information. there is an atmosphere of hydrogen and
helium, thousands of miles thick. Below that
The planet is a deep blue. It had a is slush of warmer hydrogen, helium and
“Great Dark Spot” akin to Jupiter’s water ice. The upper parts of this layer rotate
greatest storm spot. It had the same at different speeds. One rotation of these
proportions and was located at the same levels takes 16 hours and 7 minutes earth
latitude as Jupiter’s spot. But, unlike Jupiter, time. However the upper areas move more
its spot lasted only a few years. By 1994, it slowly. Because of this there is friction
was no longer visible. between the layers that causes some heating.
The heat rises and creates Neptune’s wind
Methane clouds cover this planet. and weather. This heat rising upward
These clouds absorb red light, while actually exceeds the heat the planet receives
reflecting the blue ends of the Sun’s light from the Sun. If this did not occur there
spectrum. The albeito, or reflectivity of the would be no features visible looking from
planet, is high. Eighty five percent of all space to the outside layers.
incoming light is reflected. However, even
this much reflected light is not enough to Neptune has rings - five of them.
make Neptune visible to unaided eyes on They are very thin. The wider ones are
Earth. diffuse, meaning they are so lacking in
density that they are almost transparent. The
The upper atmosphere of Neptune is three smaller rings seem to be uneven in
at – 280 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature thickness. The reason why this uneven
in which methane is liquid. (A few degrees clumping occurs is not known.
less and it will freeze.) Because of this, tiny
droplets of methane form a blue mist

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 discoverer of Pluto was Clyde Tombaugh
in 1930. It was defined as a planet until
2006, when scientists decided to create a
new class of objects in our solar system and
Th e D w ar f Pla n e ts Pluto thus became a plutoid.

The International Astronomical It takes this rocky planetoid 247.7

Union defines a planetoid, or dwarf planet Earth years to orbit the Sun. Pluto is usually
as: orbiting around the Sun, having its own over 3.6 billion miles from the Sun. This
gravity, having a rigid body, a hydrostatic makes Pluto 30 times farther from the Sun
balance, a spherical or semi spherical shape, from than Earth. Occasionally Pluto comes
has not cleared its neighborhood of debris closer to Saturn and Neptune. This lasts
and is not a satellite. about 20 Earth years of each of Pluto’s
yearly orbits.
A plutiod has the above
characteristics and also is beyond Neptune’s Pluto has a different angle of orbital
orbital, partly or all of the time. (Trans- path from Neptune, so Neptune and Pluto
Neptunian). So far, five objects have been will never collide. Pluto’s orbit is at a 17%
found that meet this description. According inclined plane (an angle to the plane of the
to these definitions, Ceres is a dwarf planet ecliptic, which is the level of angle the
but not a plutoid. planets orbits the Sun. as compared to the
rest of the solar system. If the planet had a
Plu to id s stable and regular orbit on the same plane as
All plutoids are also defined as dwarf the rest of the planets, it is possible that
planets. Neptune’s gravitational influence could have
thrown Pluto out of the solar system.
Plu to
Pluto’s average temperature in the
summer is -387 degrees Fahrenheit and
summer last about 50 years. Its winter is
nearly 100 years long. The Sun looks like
the head of a pin at the distance of the length
of one’s arm when Pluto and the Sun are at
their closest respective locations.

Pluto cannot be seen by the unaided

eye; only a large telescope can find it. It
seems to have a yellowish color. The Hubble
telescope gave us pictures that reveal an
unusual landscape, with very bright areas
next to very dark ones. The bright areas are
Courtesy NASA probably shifting fields of nitrogen ice; the
This planetoids (now plutoids) dark areas could be methane ice interacting
existence was first theorized in 1905. Once with sunlight. Some other areas that are dark
again, calculations through physics and could be from impact craters. There may be
mathematics found a planet. The actual
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large ice caps at the poles.

The density of this planetoid is about

twice that of water. The low density of the
rock may have to do with the very cold
temperatures and the low pressures
experienced when Pluto was forming. Eris

In 1978, astronomers discovered that

Pluto has a moon. They named it Charon. It
is unusual because it is so close to the
planet, only 12,000 miles away. They are so
close in size that they could be considered a
double planetoid.

In 1994 astronomers pointed the

Hubble telescope at this lonely pair and
came up with a size of Pluto. It has a 1,440
mile equatorial diameter. It also has a thin
atmosphere of methane nitrogen. The air
pressure on the planet is approximately
100,000 times less than ours is at sea level.
Artist’s Rendition of Eris
Notice how weak and distant the Sun
There is a popular astronomical
looks. Courtesy NASA
theory that Pluto was once a moon of
Neptune that was knocked away and that
This dwarf planet, or planetoid, is
Charon, its moon, was made up of the
named after the Greek goddess of warfare. It
leftover debris from the collision.
was discovered in 2005 by planetoid hunters
Remember, both Neptune and Uranus have
Mike Brown and Brad Trujillo. It was
angled poles that give the impression that
originally called Xena.
those planets were somehow knocked
sideways. Could this be true?
Eris has a moon named Dysnomia.
There is now a probe heading for
In Greek mythology Dysnomia is the
Pluto. The mission called New Horizons
daughter of Eris and is the demon spirit of
was launched January 16, 2006, at Cape
lawlessness.
Canaveral, Florida. It will arrive at Pluto in
July, 2015. From there, the spacecraft will
Eris is the largest object orbiting the
enter the Kuiper Belt (the area outside the
sun that has been discovered since Neptune
last planet that contains icy objects, plutiods
was found in the 19th century. Larger than
and asteroids), and travel through it for the
Pluto, its exact size has yet to be determined
next five years. On board are seven different
but is probably about 1400 miles in
instruments able to take measurements of
diameter.
Pluto and Charon. Along the way, the probe
will be dormant for seven years in order to
Eris is in the Kuiper Belt when it is
save energy.
at its farthest point from our sun, 10 billion
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miles from it or approximately 97 AU in This dwarf planet was also
distance. Eris is three times farther away discovered in 2005. Found by planetoid
from the sun than is Pluto and takes 560 hunter Mike Brown and his team.
earth years to complete one orbit around our Makemake is named after a god who was
star. This is twice as long as Pluto takes. It is worshipped by the inhabitants of Easter
so far away that a photon of light takes Island.
twenty four earth hours to go from the sun to
Eris and then reflect back to earth. Makemake can be found in the
Kuiper belt. It is closer to the sun than Eris
Eris is an extremely cold planetoid. and not much farther away than Pluto, but
When it is farthest from the sun, the surface still it’s very far away. It requires nearly 310
temperature is -405 degrees Fahrenheit. earth years to orbit the sun.
When it’s nearest to the sun, during its
elliptical orbit, the surface temperature will The size of the planetoid is
rise to -360 degrees. This temperature approximately 1,000 miles in diameter. This
variation is the most dramatic of any major makes it smaller that Pluto and Eris. It is
orbiting object in the solar system. about ¾ the size of Pluto.

The surface is more reflective and The surface temperature averages -

smoother than that of Pluto. As a matter of 406 degrees. The surface appears to be
fact is the second most reflective object in composed of methane and possibly ethane.
our solar system. Only the moon Enceladus The colors of the body seem to be a mix of
is more reflective. The surface seems to be areas that are red and white.
covered with frozen methane. When Eris
comes closer to the sun and reaches a When closer to the Sun, the methane
warmer temperature, the frozen methane will defrost and become an atmosphere
will turn to gas and become its atmosphere. around Makemake.

It is speculated that its interior is

probably composed of ice and rock. Haumea

MakeMake

Courtesy NASA
Artist’s Rendition of Makemake
Courtesy NASA Haumea is another dwarf planet
discovered by Mike Brown and his team.
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Discovered in 2004, the name comes from a cloud, near the edge of the Kuiper belt. Its
Hawaiian fertility and birth goddess. sun orbit takes 12,000 earth years. Sedna
may not be originally from this solar system!
Haumea has an unusual oval shape. It may have been “captured” which would
It is presumed that it had a collision with explain the odd orbital path.
another large object sometime in its distant
past. The moons that circle the planetoid The smallest of the five planetoid,
may actually be debris from that collision. Sedna is a little less than ¾ the size of Pluto,
Its rotation, or day, lasts only 4 earth hours. or about 900 miles in diameter. It has a 10
hour rotation.
Haumea has the distinction of having
two moons, Hai’aka and Namaka. Hai’aka is The surface appears to be very red in
the larger moon and is 190 miles in color. There has been little methane or water
diameter. The smaller Hai’aka is further out ice detected. Rather, the planetoid may be
from Haumea (38,000 miles) and circles the covered in hydrocarbons, a compound that
planetoid every 49 days. Namaka is orbiting is made of hydrogen, carbon and tholin. The
24,000 miles out and orbits every 37.5 days. surface seems smooth and consistent in
color. This may be due to its distance away
Sedna from the center of the solar system, which
means it has little chance for collisions.

A comparison of Sedna with other Solar A Hubble photo of Pluto and

System objects. Courtesy NASA Charon. Credit NASA

Cosmic Concept: Discovering

This dwarf planet was discovered by
Mike Brown, David Rabinowitz and Brad Scientists find these new worlds. They publish
Trujillo in November, 2003. They named it
their findings in the name of understanding.
after the Inuit goddess of the sea.
What purpose do these findings serve? Do we
It has an elliptical orbit that, at times, always need to have an immediate material or
makes it the most distant observable object practical justification from discoveries to justify
in our solar system. It is found in the Oort research? Title your essay: Research and
Results.
50
Minimum : 100 words.
 The Dwarf Planet features on the surface of Ceres, including
Ceres two large craters. The surface is coated with
dust. Ceres may have an extremely thin
atmosphere. Some water vapor or indirect
evidence of vaporization has been detected.

This planetoid takes 4.6 earth years

to orbit the sun. It maintains its orbit within
the asteroid belt. Ceres has a 9 hours, 4
minute rotational day.

Ceres is about 4.57 billion years old.

It may have had a peaceful formation in the
Courtesy NASA asteroid belt or may have migrated from the
Kuiper belt.
Ceres is the smallest dwarf planet in
our solar system. It was discovered by There is a space probe on the way to
Giuseppe Piazza, of Sicily, in 1801. He first take a closer look at each. The name of the
thought it was a comet. It is located in the probe is Dawn Mission. The probe will stop
asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter. For at another asteroid and then arrive at Ceres
almost fifty years it was considered a planet. in 2015.
For the next 155 years, it was classified as
an asteroid. It is now classified as both
asteroid and dwarf planet, or planetoid. It is
named after Ceres, the Roman goddess of
motherly love, growing plants and harvests.
Exoplanets
Ceres has a diameter of 590 miles
and is the largest body in the Asteroid Belt.
It contains almost one third of the total mass
of the Asteroid Belt. It has about 4% of the
mass of our moon. Spherical in shape, it is
covered by types of clay and water ice. It is
estimated that there is about 200 cubic
kilometers of water ice on its surface. That
is more than the amount of fresh water on
our planet! There are also carbonates found
on the surface. Ceres probably has a rocky
core and may be layered or “differentiated” An Artist’s concept.
inside. It is also possible that the various Courtesy NASA
rock, water and mineral components may be
mixed together. There also may be liquid There are 200 to 400 billion stars in
water mixed with ammonia in its interior. our galaxy. How many have planets is
speculative. It is not known if ours is a
There are about 10 recognizable typical solar system or if it is rare. There
could be trillions of planets in the Milky
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Way galaxy, or could it be only fifty to a been detected.
hundred billion? Double star systems may
create gravitational pulls that make it The first exoplanet was discovered in
difficult for planet formation to take place 1992 by Bruce Campbell, G.A.H. Walker
and young stars may also be too new for and S. Yang. It’s a gas planet orbiting a star
planet formation. Old stars may have named Gamma Cephie. This discovery
destroyed them when they exploded or would not be confirmed for another 14
somehow changed their nature. Over half of years.
the Milky Way systems seem to be binary,
(double star systems.) The second exoplanet was found by
Alexander Wolszczan and Dale Friel. It is
Nearly all of the exoplanets have known as a pulsar planet and is orbiting a
been detected by indirect means and not neutron star that was the remnant of a super
seen. Although there is no way of knowing, nova event.
it is estimated that at least 10% of the star
systems in our galaxy has planets. That In 1995, the first exoplanet that
would mean there is a minimum of many orbits a main sequence, or mainstream type
billions of planets in our galaxy! of star, was discovered by Michel Mayor
and Didier Queloz.
As of March, 2010 there were 442
known planets outside our solar system. One technique that helps find
They have been found in singular and exoplanets is called microlensing. It detects
multiple star systems. changes in received - light magnification
when planets pass between a star and the
Although theories about planets observer. A planet passing a star will have a
outside our solar system started in the 1800s, gravitational effect on its passing light
“extrasolar planet hunting” is a new and beams. This increase and subsequent
competitive field. Several teams of decrease in light distortion can tell us:
astronomers are searching the skies for signs
of planets circling their stars. The common 1. There is a planet there.
usage of radial velocity, (or detecting a 2. The size of that planet.
wobble), when a planet passes a star, is the 3. Its distance from its anchoring star.
way most extrasolar planets have been found
to date. Several planets have been
discovered using this technique. One of
So far, most extrasolar planets found these planets, small and rocky, is located
have been the size of Jupiter or larger. The 20,000 light years away, in the Sagittarius
majority of them that have been found are in Constellation. Name: OGLE-2005-BLG-
a close orbit around their parent star. 390Lb. Nice name! The star it orbits is only
Interestingly, the majority of exoplanets one fifth the size of our Sun. The planet is
found to date averaged having orbits that are about five and a half times larger than Earth
less than 20 earth days. There are also many and has an average temperature of -364
discovered planets that have large elliptical degrees Fahrenheit. The hope is that rocky
orbits. Only a few planets that are less than planets, with supportive stars that are the
two to three times the size of earth have right distance from them, will be found.

52
These planets have a greater chance for are another way to detect an exoplanet.
hosting life. Disturbances in the dust around a star will
indicate that there was disruption done by an
Astrometry is another way to detect orbiting planet.
exoplanets. Astronomers take a measure of
star movement and wobbling. The wobbles Most planets found so far are in F, G,
indicate a planet or planets orbiting. The or K type star systems, considered non
trouble is that the process is measuring habitable planets. Scientists theorize that it
movements so tiny that it is very hard to is difficult for planets to form in very cool or
detect the magnitude of the wobbles. very hot star systems. Also, stars that
contain metals seem to have a better chance
Radial Velocity or the Doppler to have planet formations in their systems.
Method is another strategy to discover these Stars that don’t contain lithium seem to not
exoplanets. The stars in our galaxy orbit have planets.
around the gravitational center of our
galaxy. As they move, some change their These are the types of planets so far
velocity. Why? The orbiting planets affect found:
the speed of the orbiting star when they pass
by the star. This produces a color shift, Pulsar Planets - Circling a neutron star.
known as the Doppler Effect. The starlight
measured coming toward earth has slight Super Earths - These planets have a mass
changes in color. This has now become the between the amounts of earth and
most successful way to find planets! Jupiter.

Transit Methods work in the Hot Jupiters and Hot Neptunes: Planets
following way: When the planet passes that are large, gaseous and orbit close to
between its star and earth, there is a the star.
diminishing amount of light that makes its
way to us. The more diminished the light, Cold Jupiters and Cold Neptunes: Planets
the bigger the planet. that are large, gaseous and orbit far from
the star.
One can also use Pulsar Timing.
When a neutron star has planets, the passing Gas Giants: A large gaseous planet with a
planets can affect the speed of the rotating rocky core.
star and thereby effect the frequency of
radio signals that pulsating - neutron stars Eccentric Jupiters: These planets have
send out. orbital patterns that resemble
comets. They swing far out and then
Eclipsing Binaries. We observe a come in close to the star. These types of
system that has two stars; once in a while planets may restrict the formation of
these stars eclipse each other. That means smaller, rocky planets.
one of them comes in between us and the
other star. A passing giant planet can Goldilocks Planets: Planets that are found
slightly affect the speeds of those eclipses. in the “habitable zone”,
Circumstellar Disks Observations have a greater chance for life.

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