Exoplanets: Worlds Around Other Stars

Outreach talk about the current state of exoplanet science. I have given this talk (or similar ones) at several venues including Woodson Library, The Admiral at the Lake retirement community, and Renaissance Court Senior Center.

links to the gifs/videos used:
http://imgur.com/a/MIuGy (Kepler planet count)
http://imgur.com/a/HGBD5 (transit technique)
http://imgur.com/a/NjCyz (radial velocity technique)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnZVvYm6KKM (Kepler multi-planet systems, featuring epic background music)

Transcript

1. EXOPLANETS: Worlds Around Other Stars Megan Bedell University of Chicago
2. POP QUIZ: How many planets can you name?
3. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Saturn, & Jupiter Johannes Kepler, 1609
4. Uranus William & Caroline Herschel, 1781
5. and another one… Neptune! Urbain Le Verrier & Johann Gottfried Galle, 1846
6. don’t forget Pluto! Clyde Tombough, 1930
7. don’t forget Pluto! not so fast… Mike Brown, 2005
8. 51 Pegasi b! Michel Mayor & Didier Queloz, 1995
9. Kepler-1 b Kepler-2 b Kepler-3 b Kepler-4 b … NASA Kepler team, 2009
11. HOW DO WE FIND EXOPLANETS?
12. THE TRANSIT TECHNIQUE
14. THE DOPPLER TECHNIQUE
16. 51 Pegasi b?!?!?! Michel Mayor & Didier Queloz, 1995 Earth = 0.09 m/s Jupiter = 13 m/s 51 Peg b = 56 m/s
18. DIRECT IMAGING
19. DIRECT IMAGING
20. DIRECT IMAGING adaptive optics
21. DIRECT IMAGING
22. SURVEYING THE GALAXY
23. Where do we start?!
24. Start small, aim high Kepler spacecraft, 2009-2013 150,000 stars surveyed in 100 square degrees on sky
25. Start small, aim high
26. Our Nearest Neighbors Nearby stars are the brightest & especially good for the Doppler method. αCentauri Bb: 459 measurements needed for detection!
27. Target The Habitable Zone too hot too cold just right
28. Target The Habitable Zone
29. The Promise of Small Stars
30. The Promise of Small Stars
31. WHAT HAVE WE FOUND?
32. Habitable Worlds
33. Other Solar Systems?
34. Hot Jupiters
35. Multi-planet Systems
36. Circumbinary Planets (aka “Tattooines”)
37. ALIENS?!?!
38. SETI searching for radio signals from other civilizations
39. SETI
40. Biological Signatures looking into the atmospheres of other planets could reveal life (intelligent or not!)
41. Other Wacky Ideas (Probably not.)
42. In Summary… o Since 1995, we have rapidly discovered a lot of new planets! o Exoplanets cover a wide range of properties o Future missions will aim to find more Earth-like planets (and maybe even life!)