AST101H1 Lecture Notes - Terrestrial Planet Finder, Observation, Exoplanet

• School: UTSG
• Department: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Course: AST101H1
• Professor: Michael Reid

Document Summary

December 3, 2013: both methods for finding exoplanets have significant biases, radial velocity/wobble/doppler method. Star orbiting around centre of mass; doppler shift in absorption spectrum. Easier to detect solar systems that have massive planets orbiting closer to. We can use the magnitude of the doppler shift to estimate the mass of the their sun; more wobble unseen planet. Measuring dips in light from planets passing in front of and behind a star. Nearly edge-on orbit: we see a transit and a doppler shift, transit method. Face-on orbit: we see no transit and no doppler shift, direct imaging. Terrestrial planet finder interferometer concept: can take detailed images of exoplanets; will be a long time before it"s actually built and used, where should we look for life, follow the water. Within our own solar system this takes us to mars; despite it looking barren we know there is or once was water and perhaps life.