Team D:
Kaniesha Stern
Charles Ammon Jowers III
Tracy Diggs

Exo means outside of and Planet means
Wanderer

Exoplanets are planets outside of our solar
system

Alex Wolszczan discovered the first exoplanet

51 Peg was the second exoplanet discovered

Kepler Satellite Mission

450 exoplanets have been confirmed

Find habitable Planets

Find signs of other life
forms

What else may we find in
the universe
• Kepler’s First Law: The orbit
of every planet is an ellipse
with the sun at one of its
foci
• Kepler’s Second Law:
P2=a3
• Kepler’s Third Law: A planet
moves the fastest when it’s
closest to a star and
Slowest when its furthest
away from it’s star
51 Peg
4.23
0.62
0.24
1.88
1.0
84.0
11.86
164.8
29.46
Introduction of Our Solar System

Transit detection is a way
of discovering Exoplanets
by viewing them at the
moment of an eclipse

Imaging is another way of
discovering exoplanets by
using a camera to take a
picture

Radial Velocity is used to
determine Doppler Shift

Doppler effect is the
shift in frequency and
wavelength of a wave

Spectrographs are used
for this method
Wien’s Law states that hotter bodies emit at shorter
wavelengths, and a higher frequency; cooler bodies emit at
longer wavelengths and a lower frequency
If a body emits in the blue, would you expect it to be hotter or
colder than a body that emits in the red?
Object:
Cool star
Sun
Hot star
Temperature:
4,000 K
5,777 K
50,000 K

There are five variables
that we used to
describe planetary
orbits, which are:
• Mean Anomaly
• Mass
• Period
• Eccentricity
• Longitude of
Periastron




Spectroscopy
 interaction of matter and
radiation.
Spectrographs
 instruments designed to
perform spectroscopy, by
dispersing light.
Emission Lines
Absorption Lines

Behaviors of
Light



Refraction
Reflection
Diffraction
Earth has a blue sky and
green grass …
Why is the sky blue?
Answer:
The sky scatters more blue light
than it does red light



Different Types of Grass
Acetone
 (CH3)2CO
Spectrograph
 Measured what
would appear on the
absorption spectrum
Why is the grass green?
Answer:
Chlorophyll reflects yellow and
green light infrared light; but
absorbs blue and red light
Red Edge and How it can be used to
detect life?

Red edge is the signature of
vegetation on earth

Astronomers will look for red
edge on other planets to see if
they may have life
—Image courtesy NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied
Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Search for life outside of our Solar System has begun
Besides Earth, there is no life on other planets in our
Solar System
 Radial Velocity and Doppler effect, Transit Detection
and Imaging are detection methods used to discover
exoplanets
 Red edge is a signature of life on a planet, a
characteristic that our planet has ; which will allow
astronomers to find life on other planets.


SEECoS and the Eberly College of Science
Norman Freed-Dean of Eberly College of Science
Ms. Jody Markley -UBMS Director
Mr. Derek James -UBMS Assistant Director
Suvrath Mahadevan -Assistant Professor
Arpita Roy -Research Assistant
Mr. Eric Speight –Teacher
AND….
All the UBMS Staff and Faculty