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Exoplanets: Where the Wild Things Are

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Exoplanets: Where the Wild Things Are Autumn 2016, Number 9 Department of Physics Newsletter EXOPLANETS: WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE MAGNETISM ORDERS EXOTIC FERMIONS THE LHC IN 2016: SOME ANSWERS, MORE QUESTIONS IOP NAMES OXFORD PHYSICS DEPARTMENT A GENDER EQUALITY CHAMPION ALUMNI STORIES EVENTS PEOPLE Christopher Roberts, Pembroke 1949, ‘New eyes on the universe’ exhibit; Five minutes with Dillon Liu; Letters reflects on his experiences Alumni reception at Canada House, to the editor; Awards and Prizes London; From Oxford to Mars! www.physics.ox.ac.uk SCIENCE NEWS SCIENCE NEWS www.physics.ox.ac.uk/research www.physics.ox.ac.uk/research Prof Ray Pierrehumbert, When it is possible to improvements in spectroscopic instrumentation made into a tight mass estimate. With this, in conjunction Halley Professor of observe a system with the implementation of the programme possible. The first with the size data from the transit depth, you know the Physics exoplanets were discovered by this method, known as density of the planet – and therefore something about EXOPLANETS: both the transit and RV the Radial Velocity (RV) method. The RV method gives what it is made of. Even without RV observations, transit method, then as a planet the period of a planet’s orbit, and using undergraduate- observations of systems with multiple planets (and there WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE hunter you’ve really hit level Newtonian mechanics one can then determine are many such systems known) can provide mass and the distance of the planet from its star. Astrophysical density estimates through a technique called Transit the jackpot, since the two techniques tell us the power output (luminosity) of the Time Variation (TTV). The gravitational tugging of one Sometime in the 1590s, early in the wake of the geochemically with the crust and hot interiors of rocky methods together turn the star, and from there one can estimate the temperature planet on another yields subtle variations of the times Copernican revolution, the Dominican friar Giordano planets, exoplanets engage problems of interest to our of the planet, contingent on what kind of atmosphere it during which transits occur, from which it is possible Bruno proposed that the stars were Suns like our own, colleagues in Earth Sciences as well; some of these points RV lower bound on mass might have. Thus begins exoclimate dynamics. The RV to back out the mass of the planets. that had their own worlds circling them – perhaps even of contact are explored in my recent Lobanov-Rostovsky into a tight mass estimate. technique also provides a lower bound on the mass of inhabited by beings like (or perhaps not like) us. In lecture, available online at https://www.alumniweb. With this, in conjunction the planet. Our nearest exoplanet, Proxima Centauri b, scientific circles, it is widely believed that poor Giordano ox.ac.uk/earth/lobanov-rostovsky-lecture. There will be © NASA/JPL-CALTECH © a mere 4.6 light years distant, was detected by the RV was martyred for his radical ideas about exoplanets, but further opportunities to learn about Oxford’s work on with the size data from the SEARCHING FOR ATMOSPHERES Cover image: Artist’s impression technique. RV detections are generally done using in fact Copernicanism and its further ramifications was planetary and exoplanetary science at the alumni event transit depth, you know of the hot, rocky exoplanet called ground-based telescopes. Transit methods also provide our main window into not considered heretical by the Church at the time, and the Physics Department will be running at the Royal 55 Cancri e, which is nearly two the density of the planet – the composition – or even existence – of exoplanet it was probably his more overtly heretical ideas that got Society on 11 November 2016. Details can be found in times as wide as Earth. Data from and therefore something The other major technique for detecting exoplanets is atmospheres. An atmosphere gradually peters out him into trouble with the Inquisition. Be that as it may, the event listings at www.physics.ox.ac.uk. the Transit Method. When a planet passes in front of its into vacuum with distance from a planet’s centre. NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope about what it is made of. it took about 400 years from Bruno’s time before the first show that the planet has extreme star, the light from the star is very slightly dimmed. All Each gas that may be present in an atmosphere (e.g. exoplanet discovery was confirmed, in 1992, with the HOW TO FIND AN EXOPLANET temperature swings and a planets transit when seen from the right position, but if water vapour) is more opaque at some wavelengths discovery of a system of planets orbiting a millisecond possible reason for this might be you are an observer stuck in just one place, like the Solar of starlight being blocked than at others. Thus, in There are two chief means of detecting exoplanets and pulsar. This was followed not long after by the discovery the presence of lava pools. System, things have to be lined up just right for a planet transit observations, the planet looks a bit bigger at characterising their orbits. Because stars are much in 1995 of a planet orbiting a main sequence star (i.e. to transit. Fortunately, even though the chance of any wavelengths where the gases in the atmosphere are good more massive than planets, to a first approximation a of the same family of hydrogen-burning stars as our given system transiting as seen from Earth is very small absorbers than at wavelengths where all the gases are planet orbits around the centre of its star. To be more Sun), 51 Pegasi. Since then, the floodgates opened, and (typically under one per cent), there are millions of stars fairly transparent. This can be used as a kind of planet- precise though, the star and planet both orbit about their we now know of more than 3500 worlds circling stars with planets within detection range, so a large number of sized spectroscope to determine what gases are in the common centre of mass, which is slightly offset from other than our own. planets have been captured by the transit method. If the atmosphere. Unfortunately, our near neighbor Proxima the centre of the star. This slight offset causes the star to size of the star is known (something astrophysics tells us Centauri b does not transit, and so is not amenable to Oxford is at the forefront of the exoplanet revolution, with wobble a bit as the planet proceeds in its orbit, so as seen with pretty good accuracy) then the amount of dimming atmospheric characterisation in this way. For planets leading-edge work on detection and characterisation of from an Earth observer, sometimes the star is moving of the star tells us the size of the planet – as opposed to that are not transiting, it is sometimes still possible to exoplanets and their atmospheres, and both theoretical towards the observer, and sometimes away. This tiny its mass. A bigger planet blocks more of the starlight and get information about the character of the atmosphere and computational exploration of their possible climates, velocity, which is not much more than a swift jogging leads to more dimming. Transit observations also yield by looking at how the infrared emission varies as the taking place in the Astrophysics and Atmospheric pace, can be detected through the Doppler shift of light the period of the orbit, and hence the distance of the planet proceeds through its orbit, presenting different Oceanic and Planetary Physics (AOPP) subdepartments from the star – the light looks a tiny bit more blue when planet from the star, though they provide less indication geographical regions to the telescope at different points and blurring the boundaries between the two. This the star is moving towards the Earth, and a tiny bit more of the shape of the orbit (i.e. how elliptical vs circular) of the orbit. This can tell us the difference between the builds on a long tradition of exploration of Solar System red when the star is moving away. This technique for than the RV method. When it is possible to observe a dayside and nightside temperature of a planet, and thus planets by faculty of the Physics Department. Further, detecting exoplanets has been known for a century or system with both the transit and RV method, then as a give information about how well the atmosphere (if because atmospheres are dynamic entities interacting more, but it was not until the 1990s that technological planet hunter you’ve really hit the jackpot, since the two any) transports heat from the illuminated to the dark methods together turn the RV lower bound on mass parts of the planet. The technique works especially well On the naming of exoplanets 1700K 2100K 1700K 2100K So far, exoplanets have not been given names like the names and even triple star systems; in such cases, when the individual stars assigned to Solar System planets, satellites and even asteroids. There do not have names, the stars are designated by capital letters and the are too many of them, and the discoveries are coming too fast for the planets (as before) by lower case letters. Thus the planet 55 CancriA-e Simulation of the radiating usual naming apparatus to keep up. Actually, the situation is not very (one of my favourites!) is the fourth planet discovered orbiting the temperature of the planet different for stars themselves. Most stars just have a catalogue number star 55 CancriA, which in turn is the first star discovered in the binary 55 Cnc-e, assuming a hydrogen (sometimes several different catalogue numbers), and it is only a few system 55 Cancri.
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