Introductory questions for Detecting Extrasolar Planets from Space Science Sequence Unit 4 Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS) http://www.lhsgems.org

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Introductory questions forDetecting Extrasolar
Planetsfrom Space Science Sequence Unit 4Great
Explorations in Math and Science
(GEMS)http//www.lhsgems.org
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Do you think there are planets orbiting other
stars?... How many?
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Are all stars the same size and temperature as
the Sun?
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How might the type of star affect whether it has
habitable planets?
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If there is a certain zone around a star where
life might exist, what must be critical qualities
of that zone?
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What things would you want to know about a newly
discovered planet?
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Why would exoplanets be hard to detect?
What methods do astronomers use to find planets?
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Whats this?
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What happens when a planet transits a star?
Make a model that you can use to demonstrate a
planet transit.
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• For each team of 46 students
• 1 snake book light
• 1 prepared Ping-Pong ball (see Getting Ready)
• several round, opaque plastic beads (ranging in
  size from 8 mm to 16 mm in diameter)
• 2 or more pipe cleaners
• 1 or 2 chopsticks or thin wooden dowels
• black thread
• 4" x 6 index cards
• tape
• paper or plastic bag to hold the materials

Book lights create a model star by setting up
a light bulb and socket in the middle of the
classroom for teams to demonstrate their transits.
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What kind of orbit would allow us to see a
transit?
Ball-on-stick demo
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Whats wrong with this statementIf a star has
an orbiting planet, astronomers can usually
detect it by transit observations
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Kepler is designed to monitor brightness of
100,000 stars simultaneously for over 3 years.
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Scale of the model?Return to questions about
planets (slide 6) Are there more questions?
Do transit observations help us answer the
questions?More about Kepler mission...