PCS 181 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Gnu Compiler Collection, Circumstellar Habitable Zone, Brown Dwarf

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Physics
• Course: PCS 181
• Professor: Dave Kirsh

Document Summary

Direct imaging of planets around other stars is very difficult: Star is a billion times brighter than planet. Systems are very far from us, have very small (cid:498)angular separation(cid:499: appear close together, easier to spot planets if system is close to us. Star has a lot of glare: easier to see the planet if orbits are far from the star, life on planets very far away from their star is not likely. Direct imaging at present is possible in a few cases: First direct image of a (warm young) planet around a sun-like star: Keck telescope nov. 2008 c marois et al. So if its so hard to look for the planet don"t! Almost all found planets are found using doppler or transit (looking at the star not the planet) Whenever you have things in space, they orbit the center of mass. If you have a binary system (two stars) they orbit the center of mass which is the balance point.