Exoplanet Trading Cards Activity Guide

About the Cards About the Game

Exoplanet Trading Cards feature a sampling of The exoplanet card game is a round-robin game exoplanet images and facts from JPL’s Eyes on that uses the 14 exoplanet game cards. Exoplanets. Note: The exoplanet images are not These cards have a purple border and a game telescope images. They are artist conceptions question at the bottom. Game cards include: based on scientific data. For background on how exoplanets are visualized, see the Universe Beta Pictoris b, HD 10647 b, HD 40307 c, KELT-6 Unplugged video Art vs. Science or JPL’s feature b, KELT-6 c, KELT-19 A b, KELT-20 b, Kepler-62 f, The Art of Exoplanets. Kepler-1229 b, Proxima Centauri b, Tau Ceti f, Tau Ceti g, TRAPPIST-1 e, and TRAPPIST-1 h The cards and related activities are designed for families and small groups of learners ages 12+, but Check the “How to Play” card for directions. Play can be adapted for other age groups and uses. continues until all of the game cards have been shared aloud and the game returns to the first The deck contains a “How to Play” card, a “Did You person who shared their card. Know?” card, a “Types of Exoplanets” card, 14 game cards, five bonus cards, and an “Explore The answer to each question is an exoplanet More” card. featured on another card. No answer key is provided because the cards supply the answers. The “Did You Know?” card contains key facts about exoplanets. It can be used to introduce the topic and establish a basic understanding Set-up before playing the card game. Print the trading cards on cardstock, cut out, and The “Types of Exoplanets” card describes the fold. Alternately, print on plain paper, cut out, fold, four types of exoplanets featured in the deck. It and laminate. Distribute one card to each player. can be used to build background and introduce the types of worlds learners will read about. For groups of 15+: Use more than one deck of cards and group players with the same card The “Explore More” card includes links to together into pairs or teams. additional activities and resources. For smaller groups: Use one deck of cards. Some The bonus cards have a blue border and are players may need to hold more than one card. optional. They can be used for group management, sorting and classifying activities, or distribution to Note: Be sure to make multiple copies of the bonus learners who successfully answer discussion cards if using them for other activities. questions.

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Other Activities Going Further: Data Activity This activity can be used to explore the relationship 1. Sort and classify between star temperature and the habitable zone, while reinforcing graphing skills. Learners can plot The Exoplanet Trading Cards contain information each exoplanet’s star temperature and distance that can be used to sort or classify the featured using the graph included on the next page. exoplanets into groups. It can be helpful to plot habitable zone exoplanets Learners can arrange the cards in alphabetical in one color and non-habitable zone exoplanets in a order (or group cards by first letter), by distance, or different color. Note: Due to scaling, exoplanets by star temperature. around very hot stars or with large distances will fall The cards can also be sorted by orbital period or outside of the grid. grouped by planet type, planet size, habitable zone, Learners should see that the habitable zone or date of discovery. planets form a trend line. This line shows that, as star temperature increases, planet distance also 2. Play an exoplanet matching game increases. Two players can use two decks of cards to play a [See details from the Planetary Habitability Laboratory] matching game that reinforces memory and pattern A planet can’t be too close to its parent star or it will recognition skills. The object of the game is to be too hot. Worlds around hotter stars have to be make as many matching pairs as possible. farther away to be in the habitable zone. However, Players lay each card image-side down on a floor a planet can’t be too far away from its star or it will or table. One player turns over two cards. If the be too cold. cards do not match, the player puts them back, The graph shows the general area of the “warm facedown, and his or her turn ends. zone” or habitable zone for different stars. This is If the cards do match, the player gets to keep the the region that is “just right” for liquid water. pair, and turns over two more cards. You can show the approximate thickness of the The game continues until all of the cards are graph’s warm zone by adding Venus, Earth, and matched. The player with the most pairs wins. Mars to the graph. These planets are in the habitable zone of our solar system –

3. Design a travel poster Venus’ distance: 0.72 astronomical unit Learners can identify a favorite exoplanet and Earth’s distance: 1 astronomical unit conduct research and/or imagine what the surface Mars’ distance: 1.52 astronomical units of their exoplanet might be like. They can then design a travel poster highlighting the key Sun’s temperature: 5,500 °C characteristics of their exoplanet. See JPL’s Exoplanet Travel Bureau for examples. Note: Although our solar system has three planets in the habitable zone, only one (Earth) has the right conditions for liquid water and life as we know it. 4. Create more questions Bonus: Habitable Zone Bingo Learners can think of, and record, other questions to ask about a particular exoplanet. These Using the bonus cards, call out or display each questions can be used for further research or to exoplanet’s star temperature and distance. create a new game. Learners use their graphs to see whether the planet is, or is not, in the habitable zone. If they answer correctly, they can earn the bonus card.

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PHL @ UPR Arecibo Arecibo UPR @ PHL

Stars, Sequence of Main Zone from Habitable Adapted

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Adapted from Habitable Zone of Main Sequence Stars, PHL @ UPR Arecibo Arecibo UPR @ PHL Stars, Sequence of Main Zone from Habitable Adapted

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Other Resources Vocabulary

Exoplanet Sizes Relative to Earth or Jupiter Astronomical unit (AU): a unit of measure that represents the average distance between Earth Exoplanet Radius Mass and the Sun, which is about 150 million kilometers or 93 million miles. This distance equals one in Beta Pictoris b 1.65 Jupiters 11 Jupiters astronomical units, or 1 AU. HD 10647 b 1.23 Jupiters 0.94 Jupiters Celsius (°C): a temperature scale on which the HD 40307 c 2.46 Earths 6.60 Earths freezing point of water is 0 °C and the boiling point KELT-6 b 1.30 Jupiters 0.52 Jupiters is 100 °C.

KELT-6 c 1.16 Jupiters 3.71 Jupiters Exoplanet: a planet outside of our solar system KELT-19 A b 1.91 Jupiters 4.07 Jupiters that usually orbits another star.

KELT-20 b 1.74 Jupiters 3.38 Jupiters Habitable zone: the area around a star where it is Kepler-62 f 1.41 Earths 2.80 Earths not too hot and not too cold for surrounding planets to have liquid water. Kepler-1229 b 1.40 Earths 2.43 Earths Proxima 1.08 Earths 1.27 Earths Centauri b Orbital period: the time it takes an object in space to complete one orbit around another object. For Tau Ceti f 1.81 Earths 3.93 Earths planets orbiting stars, the orbital period is Tau Ceti g 1.18 Earths 1.75 Earths equivalent to the planet’s year. For example, Earth’s orbital period is about 365 days. TRAPPIST-1 e 0.92 Earths 0.62 Earths

TRAPPIST-1 h 0.75 Earths 0.35 Earths Star: a very large ball of gas held together by gravity. The central core of a star is extremely hot GJ 179 b 1.24 Jupiters 0.82 Jupiters and produces energy, some of which is released as HD 40307 b 1.83 Earths 4 Earths visible light.

HD 180617 b 3.53 Earths 12.20 Earths Backgrounders & Related Materials K2-187 e 2.38 Earths 6.26 Earths

Kepler-47 c 4.65 Earths 3.17 Earths Exoplanets overview TRAPPIST-1 scale model https://tinyurl.com/9ddtr7kw https://tinyurl.com/yalkwxy4 Note: data from Eyes on Exoplanets Q&Alien: What's a Pi in the Sky math activity habitable zone? video https://tinyurl.com/y9vu5uyq Earth Jupiter https://tinyurl.com/y8l72a8x Exoplanets resource guide Q&Alien: What's in an https://tinyurl.com/y7w4ytut Radius: 6,378 km or 3,963 mi Radius: 71,492 km or 44,423 mi exoplanet name? video ViewSpace 24 24 Mass: 5.9724×10 kg Mass: 1,898.19×10 kg https://tinyurl.com/yaxqvzgj https://viewspace.org

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NASA's Universe of Learning materials are based upon work supported by NASA under award number NNX16AC65A to the Space Telescope Science Institute, working in partnership with Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Sonoma State University. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.