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Introductory questions for Detecting Extrasolar Planets from Space Science Sequence Unit 4 Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS) http://www.lhsgems.org. Do you think there are planets orbiting other stars? ... How many?. Are all stars the same size and temperature as the Sun?.
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Introductory questions forDetecting Extrasolar Planetsfrom Space Science Sequence Unit 4Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS)http://www.lhsgems.org
Do you think there are planets orbiting other stars?... How many?
How might the type of star affect whether it has habitable planets?
If there is a certain zone around a star where life might exist, what must be critical qualities of that zone?
What things would you want to know about a newly discovered planet? ooo ooo
Why would exoplanets be hard to detect? What methods do astronomers use to find planets?
What happens when a planet transits a star? Make a model that you can use to demonstrate a planet transit.
For each team of 4–6 students: • 1 snake book light • 1 prepared Ping-Pong ball (see Getting Ready) • several round, opaque plastic beads (ranging in size from 8 mm to 16 mm in diameter) • 2 or more pipe cleaners • 1 or 2 chopsticks or thin wooden dowels • black thread • 4" x 6” index cards • tape • paper or plastic bag to hold the materials Book lights: create a model “star” by setting up a light bulb and socket in the middle of the classroom for teams to demonstrate their transits.
What kind of orbit would allow us to see a transit? Ball-on-stick demo
What’s wrong with this statement:“If a star has an orbiting planet, astronomers can usually detect it by transit observations”
Kepler is designed to monitor brightness of 100,000 stars simultaneously for over 3 years.
Scale of the model?Return to questions about planets (slide 6) • Are there more questions? • Do transit observations help us answer the questions?More about Kepler mission...