Discovery and Observation Including Techniques

1. Discovery and Observation Including Techniques Jennifer Bergman Korbie Dannenberg Travis Patrick

2. Summary of Midterm Presentation • Known extrasolar planets • Trends in their physical and orbital characteristics • Overview of Techniques • Photometric/transit method • Astrometric method • Doppler/Radial Velocity method • Doppler • Planet tugs on star causing motion of the star towards and away from observer • Semiamplitude and what extrasolar planets can be detected • Precision of Doppler technique

3. Hubble Detects the First Extrasolar Planetary Atmosphere! • Planet HD209458b in orbit around star HD209458 • HD209458 is a near-by star ~ 150 light years away • HD209458b is a huge planet (0.7 times the mass of Jupiter) that orbits very, very close to its star

4. Detection and Chemical Analysis Using Transit Method • 7 hours of exposure time using STIS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope • Looked for sodium because sodium has such prominent signature in the visible • Found half the sodium expected from models

5. In the Future… • Figure out why there was less sodium than expected on HD209458b...work on atmospheric models after more measurements are made • Launch into comparative atmospheric studies of extrasolar planets • Measure water, methane, ozone, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and other constituents important to life in the atmospheres of extrasolar planets • Design and launch telescopes and missions that will specifically look at extrasolar planets (ex: SIM, TPF, NGST) • Look into cloud formation and atmospheric chemistry in extrasolar planetary atmospheres

6. Physical Characteristics in Graphical Format