Essential Cosmic Perspective
9th Edition
ISBN: 9780135795033
Author: Bennett
Publisher: PEARSON
expand_more
expand_more
format_list_bulleted
Concept explainers
Videos
Textbook Question
Chapter 10, Problem 38EAP
Unanswe,erd Questions. As discussed in this chapter, we are only just beginning to learn about extrasolar planets. Briefly describe one important but unanswered question related to the study of planets around other stars. Then write 2-3 paragraphs in which you discuss how we might answer this question in the future. Be as specific as possible, focusing on the type of evidence necessary to answer the question and how the evidence could be gathered. What are the benefits of finding answers to this question?
Expert Solution & Answer
Want to see the full answer?
Check out a sample textbook solution
Students have asked these similar questions
In a globular cluster, astronomers (someday) discover a star with the same mass as our Sun, but consisting entirely of hydrogen and helium. Is this star a good place to point our SETI antennas and search for radio signals from an advanced civilization?
Group of answer choices
No, because such a star (and any planets around it) would not have the heavier elements (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, etc.) that we believe are necessary to start life as we know it.
Yes, because globular clusters are among the closest star clusters to us, so that they would be easy to search for radio signals.
Yes, because we have already found radio signals from another civilization living near a star in a globular cluster.
No, because such a star would most likely not have a stable (main-sequence) stage that is long enough for a technological civilization to develop.
Yes, because such a star is probably old and a technological civilization will have had a long time to evolve and develop there.
Why are we unlikely to find Earth-like planets around halo stars in the Galaxy?
A. Halo stars formed in a different way from disk stars.
B. Planets around stars are known to be extremely rare.
C. Halo stars formed in an environment where there were few heavy elements to create rocky planets.
D. Halo stars do not have enough mass to hold onto planets.
Is the answer C? Since halo stars are formed early when the galaxy consisted of mainly hydrogen and helium, there are no heavier elements available to create Earth-like planets so just halo stars are formed?
Thanks!
A 1.43MSun main sequence star is found to have a planet in its habitable zone. What is the expected lifetime (in years) of the star? (Assume that the expected lifetime of the Sun is 11 ✕ 109 years. Round your answer to at least three significant figures.)
Using the figure above, if Earth orbited this star, how far along the timeline would it get?
Chapter 10 Solutions
Essential Cosmic Perspective
Ch. 10 - Prob. 1VSCCh. 10 - Prob. 2VSCCh. 10 - Prob. 3VSCCh. 10 - 4. Match the planet's po,sitions at points 1, 2,...Ch. 10 - How would the plot change if the planet were more...Ch. 10 - Prob. 1EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 2EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 3EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 4EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 5EAP
Ch. 10 - Prob. 6EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 7EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 8EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 9EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 10EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 11EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 12EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 13EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 14EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 15EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 16EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 17EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 18EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 19EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 20EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 21EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 22EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 23EAPCh. 10 - It’s the year 2025: The TESS mission has announced...Ch. 10 - Prob. 25EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 26EAPCh. 10 - 27. Which method co uld detect a planet in an...Ch. 10 - Which detection method(s) measure(s) gravitational...Ch. 10 - 29. Which one of the following can the transit...Ch. 10 - 30. To determine a planet's average density, we...Ch. 10 - 31. Based on the model types shown in Figure 10.12...Ch. 10 - Look at the dot for Jupiter in Figure 10.13, then...Ch. 10 - 33. The term "super-Earth" refers to a planet that...Ch. 10 - 34. What's the best explanation for the location...Ch. 10 - 35. Based on computer models, when is planei ary...Ch. 10 - Prob. 36EAPCh. 10 - When Is a Theory Wrong? As discussed in this cha...Ch. 10 - Unanswe,erd Questions. As discussed in this...Ch. 10 - Unanswered Questions. As discussed in this...Ch. 10 - Group Activity: Time to Move On. A common theme in...Ch. 10 - 40. Explaining the Doppler Method. Explain how the...Ch. 10 - Prob. 42EAPCh. 10 - 42. No Hot Jupiters Here. How do we think hot...Ch. 10 - 43. Low-Density Planets. Only one planet in our...Ch. 10 - Prob. 46EAPCh. 10 - Transit of TrES-1. The planet TrES-1, orbiting a...Ch. 10 - 47. Planet Around 51 Pegasi. The star 51 Pegasi...
Knowledge Booster
Learn more about
Need a deep-dive on the concept behind this application? Look no further. Learn more about this topic, physics and related others by exploring similar questions and additional content below.Similar questions
- Planetary Nebula Age. Suppose a planetary nebula is 1 pc in radius. If the Doppler shifts in its spectrum show it is expanding at 20 km/s, how old is it? (Note that 1 pc equals 3.1x1013 km, and 1 year equals 3.2x107 seconds, to two significant figures.) Please round your answer to two significant digits. At = yearsarrow_forwardFor which of the following reasons (select all that apply), is it useful/important to send rovers to other planetary bodies in our solar system? O a. The engineering innovations developed to produce successful/viable rovers and landers on other planets can help lead to developments in the technology used here on Earth that may have taken far more time to develop without the limitations provided by space travel to foreign worlds. O b. The data collected can help improve our understanding of the evolution/development of our solar system. O. Rovers/landers can be outfitted with various tools and equipment that can be used to inform of us of the geological histories of each of the planets they visit. O d. More direct probes of the planetary surface are possible to detect signs of the building blocks of life. O e. Rock samples can be used to calibrate our estimations of the age of the solar system.arrow_forwardConsidering what you learned from the solar nebula theory, how likely do you think it is to find habitable planets in other solar systems? Visit NASA’s Kepler mission to learn more about this search, and write a ½ page summary on the mission.arrow_forward
- Tutorial A radio broadcast left Earth in 1923. How far in light years has it traveled? If there is, on average, 1 star system per 400 cubic light years, how many star systems has this broadcast reached? Assume that the fraction of these star systems that have planets is 0.50 and that, in a given planetary system, the average number of planets that have orbited in the habitable zone for 4 billion years is 0.40. How many possible planets with life could have heard this signal? Part 1 of 3 To figure out how many light years a signal has traveled we need to know how long since the signal left Earth. If the signal left in 1923, distance in light years = time since broadcast left Earth. d = tnow - broadcast d = 97 97 light years Part 2 of 3 Since the radio signal travels in all directions, it expanded as a sphere with a radius equal to the distance it has traveled so far. To determine the number of star systems this signal has reached, we need to determine the volume of that sphere. V, = Vb…arrow_forwardTutorial A radio broadcast left Earth in 1925. How far in light years has it traveled? If there is, on average, 1 star system per 400 cubic light years, how many star systems has this broadcast reached? Assume that the fraction of these star systems that have planets is 0.30 and that, in a given planetary system, the average number of planets that have orbited in the habitable zone for 4 billion years is 0.85. How many possible planets with life could have heard this signal? Part 1 of 3 To figure out how many light years a signal has traveled we need to know how long since the signal left Earth. If the signal left in 1925, distance in light years = time since broadcast left Earth. d = tnow - tbroadcast d = light years Submit Skip (you cannot come back)arrow_forwardDescribe the Nebular Theory. Include A) what it is, B)what happened, and C) at least three lines of evidence to support it.arrow_forward
- A newly discovered orange dwarf star has a surface temperature of approximately 5185 K. How far would its Goldilocks Zone be from the star if an astrologist wanted to look for potentially habitable planets? And how wide would the zone be?arrow_forwardImpact Energy. Consider a comet about 2 kilometers across with a mass of 4 × 1012 kg. Assume that it crashes into Earth at a speed of 30,000 meters per second (about 67,000 miles per hour). a. What is the total energy of the impact, in joules? (Hint: The kinetic energy formula tells us that the impact energy in joules will be 1 × m × v2, where 2 m is the comet’s mass in kilograms and v is its speed in meters per second.) b. A 1-megaton nuclear explosion releases about 4 × 1015 joules of energy. How many such nuclear bombs would it take to release as much energy as the comet impact? c. Based on your answers, comment on the degree of devastation the comet might cause.arrow_forwardMost of the stars we can see with the unaided eye in our night sky are hundreds or even thousands of lightyears away from Earth. (The very closest ones are only a few dozen lightyears away, but most are much further.) The vast majority of stars in our galaxy are many tens of thousands of lightyears away. IF intelligent life existed on planets orbiting some of these stars – and that’s a huge IF! – comment on the likelihood and practicality of (a) visiting, (b) communicating with, or (c) verifying the existence of those life forms. Describe how you might go about approaching EACH of these three tasks, or if you think they are even possible. (One or two sentences for each part would be appropriate.)arrow_forward
- If you could visit another planetary system while the planets are forming, would you expect to see the condensation sequence at work, or do you think that process was most likely unique to our Solar System? How do the properties of the extrasolar planets discovered so far affect your answer? Do you expect the most planetary system in the Universe have analogs to our Solar System’s asteroid belt and Kuiper Belt? Would all planetary systems show signs of an age of heavy bombardment? If the solar nebula hypothesis is correct, do you think there are more planets in the Universe than stars? Why or why not?arrow_forwardH5. A star with mass 1.05 M has a luminosity of 4.49 × 1026 W and effective temperature of 5700 K. It dims to 4.42 × 1026 W every 1.39 Earth days due to a transiting exoplanet. The duration of the transit reveals that the exoplanet orbits at a distance of 0.0617 AU. Based on this information, calculate the radius of the planet (expressed in Jupiter radii) and the minimum inclination of its orbit to our line of sight. Follow up observations of the star in part reveal that a spectral feature with a rest wavelength of 656 nm is redshifted by 1.41×10−3 nm with the same period as the observed transit. Assuming a circular orbit what can be inferred about the planet’s mass (expressed in Jupiter masses)?arrow_forwardIn Table 2, there is a list of 15 planets, some of which are real objects discovered by the Kepler space telescope, and some are hypothetical planets. For each one, you are provided the temperature of the star that each planet orbits in degrees Kelvin (K), the distance that each planet orbits from their star in astronomical units (AUs) and the size or radius of each planet in Earth radii (RE). Since we are concerned with finding Earth-like planets, we will assume that the composition of these planets are similar to Earth's, so we will not directly look at their masses, rather their sizes (radii) along with the other characteristics. Determine which of these 15 planets meets our criteria of a planet that could possibly support Earth-like life. Use the Habitable Planet Classification Flow Chart (below) to complete Table 2. Whenever the individual value you are looking at falls within the range of values specified on the flow chart, mark the cell to the right of the value with a Y for…arrow_forward
arrow_back_ios
SEE MORE QUESTIONS
arrow_forward_ios
Recommended textbooks for you
Stars and Galaxies (MindTap Course List)PhysicsISBN:9781337399944Author:Michael A. SeedsPublisher:Cengage Learning
Horizons: Exploring the Universe (MindTap Course ...PhysicsISBN:9781305960961Author:Michael A. Seeds, Dana BackmanPublisher:Cengage Learning
Stars and Galaxies (MindTap Course List)
Physics
ISBN:9781337399944
Author:Michael A. Seeds
Publisher:Cengage Learning
Horizons: Exploring the Universe (MindTap Course ...
Physics
ISBN:9781305960961
Author:Michael A. Seeds, Dana Backman
Publisher:Cengage Learning
General Relativity: The Curvature of Spacetime; Author: Professor Dave Explains;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7V3koyL7Mc;License: Standard YouTube License, CC-BY