EARTHS TWINS ? THE SEARCH FOR EXO-EARTHS ZSUZSA HORVATH - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

EARTH’S TWINS ? THE SEARCH FOR EXO-EARTHS ZSUZSA HORVATH KOSZTOLANYI HIGHSCHOOL BUDAPEST International Conference on Teaching Physics Innovatively 17-19 August 2015 1

Earth and Mars 2

ARE WE ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE? Are Earth-size planets in the habitable Is there life beyond Earth? zone of stars common or rare in our galaxy? Where is everybody?(Enrico Fermi) What are the most important exoplanet Will we find intelligent life? discoveries so far? What is life? Could we detect life? What is the nearest exoplanet to Earth How did life evolve on the Earth? and our solar system? What makes a world habitable? Are there Earth-like planets around our nearest stellar neighbor? Can we live in elsewhere in the universe? What is the shortest distance between an How did the Solar System form? exoplanet and its parent or host star so How many alien solar systems have been far? found so far? What is the strongest surface gravity for What fractions of stars host planets? an exoplanet so far? … 3

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM 4

PLANET SYSTEMS DISCOVERED BY KEPLER SPACE TELESCOPE 5

How Are the Discoveries Made? Direct detection: Imaging Indirect detection: Radial velocity (Spectroscopic method) Transit method Gravitational microlensing Astrometry, Pulsar timing and others 6

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The radial velocity graph of 51 Pegasi Artist’s concept of 51 Pegasi b, the first exoplanet detected around Sun- like star (1995) Image via Dr. Seth Shostac/SPL 8

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DIRECT IMAGING 11

HABITABLE ZONE 12

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RECENT DISCOVERIES 14

Kepler-452b EARTH AND KEPLER-452b 15

KEPLER SPACE TELESCOPE

FUTURE EXOPLANETS MISSIONS CHEOPS (2017) TESS (2017) PLATO (2024) JWST (2018) Characterizing Transiting Planetary Transits James Webb ExOPlanet Extrasolar and Oscillations of Space Telescope Satellite Survey Satelitte stars 17

INTERSTELLAR TRIP PLANNER (PlanetQuest Interactive, NASA) 18

http://www.planethunters.org http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/interactives http://eyes.jpl.nasa.gov/eyes-on-exoplanets.html

Are we alone in the universe? "I believe we are going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth in the next decade and definitive evidence in the next 10 to 20 years," "We know where to look, we know how to look, and in most cases we have the technology," Ellen Stofan, chief scientist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 20

Thank you for your attention! 21

References: http://kepler.nasa.gov/ http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/science http://lcogt.net/spacebook/exoplanets/ http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/ http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog 22