How do you find an exoplanet?
By: John Asher Johnson
Series: Princeton frontiers in physics; Princeton frontiers in physics
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 178
ISBN-13: 9780691156811
Subjects: Detection; Extrasolar planets; Methodology; Research
Description: "Alien worlds have long been a staple of science fiction. But today, thanks to modern astronomical instrumentation and the achievements of many enterprising observational astronomers, the existence of planets outside our solar system--also known as exoplanets--has moved into the realm of science fact. With planet hunters finding ever smaller, more Earth-like worlds, our understanding of the cosmos is forever changed, yet the question of how astronomers make these discoveries often goes unanswered. How Do You Find an Exoplanet? is an authoritative primer on the four key techniques that today's planet hunters use to detect the feeble signals of planets orbiting distant stars. John Johnson provides you with an insider's perspective on this exciting cutting-edge science, showing how astronomers detect the wobble of stars caused by the gravitational tug of an orbiting planet, the slight diminution of light caused by a planet eclipsing its star, and the bending of space-time by stars and their planets, and how astronomers even directly take pictures of planets next to their bright central stars."--Publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 163-169) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction. My brief history; title: The human activity of watching the sky; title: Asking why the planets move as they do; title: Exoplanets and completing the Copernican revolution; title: Stellar wobbles. At the telescope; title: For every action; title: Eccentric orbits; title: Measuring precise radial velocities; title: Stellar jitter; title: Design considerations for a Doppler survey; title: Concluding remarks; title: Seeing the shadows of planets. Measuring and reading transit signals; title: The importance of a/R*; title: Transit timing variations; title: Measuring the brightness of a star; title: Radial velocities first, transits second; title: Transit first, radial velocities second; title: From close in to further out; title: Planets bending space-time. The geometry of microlensing; title: The microlensing light curve; title: The microlensing signal of a planet; title: Microlensing surveys; title: Directly imaging planets. The problem of angular resolution; title: The problem of contrast; title: The problem of chance alignment; title: Measuring the properties of an imaged planet; title: The future of planet hunting. Placing the solar system in context; title: Learning how planets form; title: Finding life outside the solar system; title: Giant planets as the tip of the iceberg; title: The future of the Doppler method : moving to dedicated instrumentation; title: The future of transit surveys; title: The future of microlensing; title: The future of direct imaging; title: Concluding remarks.