Category Archives: exoplanets

exoplanets

Exoplanets and Life “Out There”

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We’re Learning More all the Time

The Kepler and COROT missions are on the hunt for extrasolar planets, and so are a host of ground-based observers. There’s no doubt in my mind that sometime in the next few years, scientists will find a planet that has signs of life — whether that life is currently extant or long gone.  When that happens, our cosmic view will be changed forever.

The search for those planets and the life they may contain is fraught with questions: what will that life be like? Will the planets be like Earth, or different?  Will that life be intelligent?  How do scientists know what the signs of life are?

They’re all good questions and people in the general public are as interested in finding out as are the scientists. If you want to learn more, you have to search out websites like SETI.org and NASA’s astrobiology site.

I got an email recently from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. As many other museums are doing around the country, they are having a series of social evenings where attendees can meet and mingle (and hear talks from) scientists about various topics. The AMNH series is called Science Cafe.  One of their talks — coming up on October 7 — focuses on exoplanets and the search for life in the universe,  featuring a talk by Dr. Ben Oppenheimer. If you are near NYC and want to learn more, check it out and have a cocktail while you’re at it!   Dr. Oppenheimer will discuss exoplanets, as well as his search for a hypothetical Earth-twin and signs of habitability in nearby planetary systems. Oppenheimer will also explain his role as principal investigator on the Lyot Project, which aims to reveal how planets and solar systems are formed.

'Casts, astrocast.tv, exoplanets, extrasolar planets

Finding Worlds

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Exoplanet Searches

There are countless worlds in our galaxy, all formed in the same process that created this planet you’re sitting/standing on and reading these words from. Pretty awesome thought. I’m a science fiction reader, so of course my thoughts always center on how many of those worlds might have life — in particular, the life we might be able to communicate or even visit (if that were even possible).  Finding those worlds isn’t just a matter of pointing a telescope up at stars and looking for little planets circling around them. Stars are bright and big; planets not so much. Most of the time, they’re hidden in the glare of their star — just as Earth would be lost in the Sun’s glare as seen from light-years away.

Most of the planets that HAVE been discovered around other stars are of the Jupiter-class and larger variety. They’re often called “Hot Jupiters” because their temps are so high — but not hot enough to be stars. They’re easier to spot that smaller, Earth-sized worlds. That’s changing now, due to missions like Kepler and COROT, which are designed to find the kinds of planets where life might be hanging out. And, they’re doing it in a variety of ways.

Planet searches are a hot topic right now in astronomy and space science — so much so that my latest episode of The Astronomer’s Universe over at Astrocast.tv focuses on exoplanets and the methods astronomers are using to ferret them out from the glare of their stars.  You can watch it below — and by all means, head over to the main site and watch all the segments in this month’s episode!