Exoplanets (also known as Exosolar or Extrasolar planets) are planets outside the solar system.
Exoplanets (also known as Exosolar or Extrasolar planets) are planets outside the solar system.
Questions tagged [exoplanets]
121 questions
78
votes
6 answers
How can we see planets thousands of light years away but don't know if there are more planets in the solar system?
That is basically my question, it arose when I saw an article (here is the scientific paper, which should be free to read) saying two Caltech scientists might have found the 9th planet of the solar system.
Suriya
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43
votes
2 answers
Is our solar system really that odd?
I have been learning about the solar system from popular science shows. In these shows they suggest that, after having seeing around 2500 other solar systems, astronomers have concluded that our solar system is not the normal one. They see sun…
Ben Sprott
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26
votes
4 answers
How do the “hot Jupiter” planets get so close to their host star?
Many of the extrasolar planets to date are Jovian sized planets that orbit very very close to their parent star. Traditional planetary formation models say that it is extremely unlikely (if not impossible) for them to form there as there is not…
dagorym
- 6,477
20
votes
1 answer
Can we know if an exoplanet has a magnetic field?
The recent discovery of the exoplanet Proxima b gave rise to several questions concerning its habitability and its potential to host life. A major concern is the huge amount of radiation coming from flares emanating from its star. The planet is…
Qwertuy
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16
votes
3 answers
What is the probability that a star of a given spectral type will have planets?
There is a lot of new data from the various extrasolar planet projects including NASA's Kepler mission on extra-solar planets. Based on our current data what is the probability that a star of each of the main spectral types (O, B, A, etc) will have…
dagorym
- 6,477
15
votes
2 answers
What is the farthest planetary body or star system object we have observed using visual light?
What is the farthest object which we can get a direct Detailed visual image of using visible light which appears more than just a dot and falls into one of the following categories:
Planet
Satellite
Star
Asteroids
I think Pluto is the farthest…
user1062760
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14
votes
1 answer
Do any naked-eye stars have planets
Are there any known exoplanets around naked-eye stars? I know that Fomalhaut has a planet, and Vega has a dust belt that may be a protoplanetary disk or even analogous to our Kuiper belt. What else is out there orbiting naked-eye stars?
dotancohen
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14
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2 answers
What percent of planets are in the position that they could be viewed edge-on from Earth? (and thus able to undergo transits)
Star number 12644769 from the Kepler Input Catalog was identified as
an eclipsing binary with a 41-day period, from the detection of its
mutual eclipses (9). Eclipses occur because the orbital plane of the
stars is oriented nearly edge- on as…
InquilineKea
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14
votes
2 answers
Why did population III stars lack planets?
Jay Wacker1 (professor of physics at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) stated:
The first stars (known as Pop III) were made out of hydrogen and helium. They had no planets.
Why couldn't they have had gas planets?
[1] Requires login at…
Peter Mortensen
- 2,348
14
votes
2 answers
What would we see if we looked at our Solar system from 2,000 light years away with our current technology?
Assuming the tables were turned and we would live in a system like Kepler-422/423/424, some 2,000 ly away. If we'd look at the Solar system with a telescope like Kepler and using techniques like radial velocity and/or transit photometry, what would…
Blackscale
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11
votes
1 answer
How many earth-sized planets have been discovered outside the solar system?
How many earth-sized planets have been discovered outside our solar system? Is there a combined registry of them anywhere? Where might I look for more information?
Brian Hooper
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- 4
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10
votes
2 answers
How close would Earth have to be for us to detect it was habitable, and then inhabited?
Given our current technology (or technology that is near implementation), how close would a clone of our Solar System (and so also Earth) have to be to us in order to detect that the cloned Earth was in habitable, and also how close would we have to…
Jonathan.
- 7,057
10
votes
2 answers
Planets capable of life: dead or still alive?
There are some planets that scientists speculate may be capable of supporting life. However, these planets are hundreds of light years away. How can we be sure they are still capable of supporting life, that they are still there, or even have life?
grassman
10
votes
2 answers
How can a gas giant be about the same size but six times more massive than Jupiter?
I've just read this article: http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/science-kepler-432b-new-super-jupiter-exoplanet-02490.html
And I wondered how this could be possible?
Maybe it's because this gas giant doesn't have the same composition as Jupiter. But…
Quantum Force
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9
votes
2 answers
Word for the star around which an exoplanet orbits:
Is there accepted nomenclature for the star around which a particular exoplanet orbits? Meaning, if I were to say "The exoplanet blah blah blah's (noun)" what noun would I put there? Sun? Star? Designated Gravity Buddy? Something else?
As I…
OmnipotentEntity
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