How to find a planet?

An introductory talk on NASA's Kepler and K2 missions, presented in August 2017.

Transcript

1. How to find
 a planet? (Not what the actual data look like) @GeertHub www.geert.io
 github.com/barentsen
 Geert Barentsen
2. *
3. Are we alone?
5. Image: NASA
6. Detecting Planet Transits
7. Jupiter Earth Small planets are really hard to find
8. Jupiter Neptune 2 x Earth Earth Small planets are really hard to find
9. * •need to look at the right place • at the right time •and measure the brightness of stars • with extreme accuracy
10. NASA’s Kepler Mission “Are Earth-like planets common?”
11. * Kepler was launched on 6 March 2009 Attached to a big telescope 100 megapixel camera (100 deg2)
 Makes movies of stars! The Kepler Spacecraft
12. * March 6, 2009
13. * The Kepler Field of View
14. • So what does the data look like?
16. Exoplanet Detections, 1989-1995 Radius Relative to Earth Orbital Period in days Earth
17. Radius Relative to Earth Orbital Period in days Earth Jupiter Exoplanet Detections, 1989-1995
18. Radius Relative to Earth Orbital Period in days Exoplanet Detections, 1995-2009
19. Radius Relative to Earth Orbital Period in days Earth Exoplanet Detections, 1995-2013
20. Too big! Just right. Too small!
24. !24
25. 2009-2013 Kepler observed 200,000 stars over 4 years, finding 4,496 candidate planets
26. And then it BROKE
27. Balancing Solar Pressure
30. Kepler now changes its pointing every 3 months ecliptic This is called the K2 Mission
31. The Pleiades
32. Photometry of the Seven Sisters
33. 33
35. !35
38. *
39. *
40. Are we alone?